Print Page - Hungry Heart Daily Devotional Anthology -mjs

Greetings Solder4Christ! I like your Daily Devotionals and it gave me the idea, if it's ok, to post one also. Thanks for your labors on this site and God's blessings to you and your's and to all site members!!

This is the "None But The Hungry Heart" series, a daily devotional anthology from Miles J Stanford (1914-1999).

1-1. NOTHING DAUNTED

"Blessed are they that . . . seek Him with the whole heart" (Psalm 119:2).

Once the Holy Spirit instills within our hearts the hunger for God's very best, all must and will become secondary to this supreme goal: " . . .the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:14). Our puny, worthless all exchanged for the One who is All in all! "For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to Whom be glory for ever. Amen" (Romans 11:36) .

"A sage of India was asked by a young man how he could find God. For some time the sage gave no answer, but one evening he asked the youth to come and bathe with him in the river. While there he gripped him suddenly and held his head under the water until he was nearly drowned. When he released him the sage asked him: 'What did you want most when you were under the water?' 'A breath of air,' he replied. To which the sage answered, 'When you want God as you wanted the breath of air, you will find Him.'" -G.G.

"Every Christian will become at last what his desires have made him. We are all the sum total of our hungers. The great saints have all had thirsting hearts. Their cry has been, 'My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God....' Their longing after God all but consumed them; it propelled them onward and upward to heights toward which less ardent believers look with and entertain no hope of reaching."

"For He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness" (Psalm 107:9)

Thanks Solder4Christ and your comment on glorifying God is also why I work. Thanks again for the idea!

1-2. LIFE'S PURPOSE

"For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9).

Our Lord the Vine provides all that His branches will ever need for fruit-bearing. All provision is according to our Father's riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).
"Christian growth is the becoming real in ourselves, of what is already true of us in the Lord Jesus. 'I am the vine, ye are the branches, He says. But the vine furnishes the branches, not only with the principle of life, but with the type of life. No pressure or molding from without is needed to shape them to the pattern of the parent stock. Every minutest peculiarity of form, and color, and taste, and fragrance is determined by the root, and developed from it. A true believer, therefore, will ask no better thing of the Lord than that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in his body (2 Corinthians 4:11). For such a manifestation will, by a necessary principle, be the unfolding within him of every needed element of joy and sorrow, of suffering and triumph." -A.J.G.
"Straining, driving effort does not accomplish the work God gives a man to do; we must partake of Christ so fully that He more than fills the life. It will then be not overwork but overflow."
"And ye are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power" (Colossians 2:10).

I would like to add that we are to remember we do no produce the fruit but bear it. Many Christians work needlessly in attempting to do works by the Lord instead of allowing the Lord to do the works by us. "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples"(John 15:8).

1-3. RELENTLESS PURPOSE

"For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him" (2 Chronicles. 16:9).

All of God's thoughts concerning us are centered in His Son, where He has placed us. Hence they are "thoughts of peace, and not of evil" (Jeremiah 29:11). Others may do evil against us, but our Father turns it into our good, for Jesus' sake.

"The purpose of God is that through the conditions and sufferings of my life should develop in me the features of His Son. On the one hand, the features of the old creation may be seen to be more and more terrible and horrible, as I recognize them in myself; but over against that God is doing something which is other than my old self. He is bringing into being Another, altogether other, and that is His Son, my new life. Slowly, seemingly all too slowly; nevertheless something is developing. The sonship is not very much in evidence yet, but it is going to be manifested. What God has been doing will come out into the light eventually conformity to the image of His Son." -T. A-S.

"Afflictions are in the hands of the Holy Spirit to effect the softening of the heart in order to receive heavenly impression. Job said, 'God maketh my heart soft' (Job 23:16). As the wax in its natural hard state cannot take the impress of the signet, and needs to be melted to render it susceptible, so the believer is by trials prepared to receive, and made to bear, the divine likeness."

"Rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving''(Colossians 2:7).

1-4. DESERT RICHES

"And He said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart, into a desert place, and rest a while" (Mk 6:31).

In the early days of our lonely pilgrimage, the desert is nothing but burning heat and barren sand. As we "keep on keeping on," we see our desert become full of springs and blossom as the rose.

"Has the Father led you into the desert? Has He plucked from under your feet all that you depended upon? Then a glorious experience is yours. See if this be not a way whereby God will glorify you! Do not complain about what you have lost, and do not yearn to have it back again, for then you are like Israel who wished to turn back to Egypt. God leads on, and instead of the flesh-pots He gives you bread from heaven, and instead of water from the Nile, water from the Rock. But you must put your trust in Him also in the desert, and through the days of darkness and difficulty. This is possible, however, only for those who have lost their self-assurance in the desert whereto God beckons His children."

"Are there sorrows that sorely test our hearts? Be assured that our Father intends every one of them to be a road for us to Christ; so that we may reach Him and know Him in some character of His love and power, that otherwise our souls had not known." -C.A.C.

"And they thirsted not when He led them through the deserts: He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them. . . ." ". . .for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ" (Isaiah 48:21; 1 Corinthians 10:4).

1-5. LOVE DRAWS AND CONFORMS

"Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee" (Jeremiah 31:3).

God is the first and only Cause. He always makes the first move. "For God so loved. . . that He gave"; "Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you" (John 3:16; 15:16). Even the hunger of heart necessary for our response to His love comes from Him. "But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus" (I Peter 5:10). He brought us to His Son; He will make us like His Son.

"If you feel the drawing of God within, cherish it as you would cherish a great treasure. If you are aware of a deep hunger, if you are entering into a closer walk with Him, do not look upon it carelessly, nor treat it lightly. But if you do not feel the divine drawing and hunger for God, cry to Him that He will give it you; and ever remember that the desire for hunger is the beginning of hunger, and that you cannot feed upon the Lord Jesus Christ until you are spiritually hungry." -H. McI.

"Our Lord is generous in His provision, but He is neither casual nor wasteful. There must be a real hunger and felt need. It is a fixed principle with the Lord that He does not move until something like desperation makes it evident that it is His move." -T. A-S.

"No one is able to come to Me unless the Father who sent Me attracts and draws him and gives him the desire to come to Me" (John 6:44, Amp.).

1-6. FULNESS OF SELF

"Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?" (Isaiah 2:22).

As Christians we are going to be controlled by one of two powers: the self-life (old man), or the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The former will make life hell, the latter, heaven.

"He who knows that awful power of the self-life within; its enmity with God; its carnality; its grieving and quenching of the Spirit; its deadly blighting of all the blessed fruits of the Spirit; its fierce and desperate resistings of his hunger to enter into the full life of the Spirit, needs no other explanation of the lack of the fulness of the Spirit than the fulness of self." -J.H. McC.

"Do not seek to shatter the mirror which reflects your soul's lack of beauty; rather welcome the truth, and believe that next to knowledge of the Lord Jesus nothing is so important as the knowledge of self."-N.G.

"There is nothing in self worth holding on to; it ought to be handed to the Cross; we have submitted ourselves to such a life as that, and our Father is going to give us every opportunity to allow the Holy Spirit to hold the old nature in the place of death, with the glorious end in view that our Lord Jesus will have the preeminence." -F.M.

"I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:5,6).

1-7. LIFE'S MOTIVATION

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Romans 8:14).

It takes a good many years of sin and failure in order to see through our own motives. The growing believer finally learns to trust but one source of motivation: "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:2).

"All of our motives will be tested by fire. Are we seeking personal influence, popularity, reputation, prestige, acceptableness, success? We may think our motives to be perfectly pure; but not until we pass into daily death, death to any or all of the above, and find ourselves 'despised and rejected of men,' our names cast out as evil, and a real hold-up (seemingly) of our work, do we really come to face the true purpose and motive of our having any place in the service of God. The Cross separating us from everything Adamic both within and without is a good test of motives.

"Men of God who have been truly used by Him have gone this way. Not upon our flesh whether it be the gross flesh or the refined, soulish, educated flesh will God allow His Spirit to come. Before there can be life for others there must be death for us (2 Corinthians 4-12). Before there can be the fire of God there must be an altar and a sacrifice; and it must be the burnt offering." -T. A-S.

"Present your bodies a living sacrifice. . . which is your reasonable service" (Romans 12:1).

1-8. UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!

"Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips...for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of hosts'' (Isaiah 6.5).

Paul wrote, "In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (1 Thessalonians 5:18). This includes giving thanks for the disclosure of self! At first, we seek to hide our sinfulness and to save our life. Later, by His grace, we yearn to be freed from self, regardless of the cost. And the price is the Cross.

"Many a young Christian, who has not been forewarned of this necessary voyage of discovery upon which the Holy Spirit will certainly embark him (Romans Seven), has been plunged into almost incurable despair at the sight of the sinfulness which is his by nature. He has in the first place rejoiced greatly in the forgiveness of his sins, and his acceptance by God; but sooner or later he begins to realize that all is not well, and that he has failed and fallen from the high standard which he set himself to reach in the first flush of his conversion.

"Little does he know how healthy his condition is, and that this shattering discovery is but the prelude to a magnificent series of further discoveries of things which God has expressly designed for his eternal enrichment. All through life God has to show us our own utter sinfulness and need, in order to more fully lead us on into realms of grace." -J.C.M.

"But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil" (2 Thessalonians 3:3).

1-9. POWERLESS RECIPIENTS

"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us" (Romans 8:37)

The world, the flesh, and the devil say, Be powerful. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit say, Be powerless "for My strength is made perfect in [your] weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9)

"There would be little harm in trying to imitate Christ if such an endeavor did not hide from us what our Lord really desires; and so keep us back from 'life more abundant.' Christ has come Himself into our hearts to dwell there, and what He wants is to live His life in us, as the Apostle Paul says, 'For to me to live is Christ.' Christ was the very source and mainspring of all he was and did. What a wonderful thing this is! We would be driven to despair if Christ had simply left us an example to follow or imitate, for we have no power within ourselves to do it. We must have a new source; a new spring of action, and Christ Himself wants to be just that for us." -E.C.H.

"The man in Romans Seven is occupied with himself, and his disappointment and anguish spring from his inability to find in self the good which he loves. The man of Romans Eight has learned there is no good to be found in self. It is only in Christ; and his song of triumph results from the joy of having found out that he is 'complete in Him.'" -H.A.I.

"I have strength for all things in Christ who empowers me; I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses inner strength into me" (Philippians 4:13, Amplified).

1-10. REST IN HIM

"He has created us through our union with Christ Jesus for doing good deeds which He beforehand planned for us to do"(Ephesians 2:10, Wms.).

The turning point in our Christian life comes when we begin to "let God be God," the day we throw all caution (fear) to the winds and look to Him to carry out His purpose for us in His own time and way.

"Our Father never does a thing suddenly: He has always prepared long, long before. So there is nothing to murmur about, nothing to be proud of, in the calling of God. There is also no one of whom to be jealous, for other people's advantages have nothing to do with us. 'It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy' (Romans 9:16). Our heritage, our birth, our natural equipment: these are things already determined by God. We may pick up other things in the way, for we are always learning; but the way is His way. When we look back over our life, we bow and acknowledge that all was prepared of God. To have such an attitude of heart, that is true rest." -W.N.

"Let us take care lest we get out of soul-rest in seeking further blessing. God cannot work whilst we are anxious, even about our spiritual advance. Let us take Him at His Word, and leave the fulfillment of it to Him."

"For it is God Himself whose power creates within you the desire to do His gracious will and also brings about the accomplishment of the desire" (Philippians 2:13, Weymouth).

Remember, except for receiving salvation, nothing which God does results from anything we do, for He "works all things after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 1:11). Nothing He blesses us in is merited but foreknown and preplanned. "For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate . . . ." (Rom 8:29).

1-11. DESIGNER AND DESIGNED

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3)

Since the sovereign God has every atom in the universe precisely timed and controlled for the carrying out of His perfect will, it should not be difficult for us to understand why He is so meticulous in His development of us as His instruments. "Being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 1:11).

"You are one of God's rough diamonds, and He is going to have to cut you so that you may really shine for Him. It takes a diamond to cut a diamond. You are to be ground and cut, and hurt by other diamonds, by other Christians, by spiritual Christians. But the more cutting and the more perfecting, the more you are going to shine for your Lord." -G.M.

"God in His wisdom has ordained our trials, and it is our folly that causes us not to welcome them. God sends us such trials as are exactly fitted for us. Our Heavenly Father knows what will best serve us. He serves us by trials and by comforts. Let us remember that our trials are few our evil ways are many; our worthiness nothing; our comforts great. When God tries us let us consider how we have been trying Him. By grace we will not murmur, but humble ourselves under His mighty hand, and He will exalt us in due time."

"Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you" (1 Peter 4:12).

1-12. DEPENDENT RECEPTION

"Walk in [dependence upon] the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16).

Those who have thoroughly learned full dependence on Him for justification will come to understand that sanctification is by the same faith principle. We are to rest in His finished work both for birth and for growth.

"We are not to overcome the lusts of the flesh in order that we may walk in the Spirit. We are to walk in the Spirit in order that the lusts of the flesh may be overcome. The enemy can hold up young Christians on this point for a long time, so that they do not really get started on the Christian walk. They feel they cannot expect to begin to walk in the Spirit until they have, in some degree at least, dealt with the lusts of the flesh.

"They wait for some vague time when they hope they will have reached a more satisfactory position in regard to the lusts of the flesh, and will feel more confident about attempting a walk in the Spirit. But that is all the wrong way around. If we are to wait until we have, in some degree, mastered the lusts of the flesh before we venture to walk in the Spirit: if we are to wait until we feel that we can give some sort of security to ourselves and to God that we shall do a bit better in the future than we have done in the past, then we never will walk in the Spirit. For until we walk in dependence upon the Spirit we shall not, and cannot, overcome the lusts of the flesh." -D.T.

"Be filled with [controlled by] the indwelling of the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18, Cony.).

1-13. SOURCE OF SIN

"I am a sinful man, O Lord" (Luke 5:8).

When the believer first becomes aware of the sinful self-life, he often makes the mistake of attempting to deal with its symptoms. He struggles to curb his sins and tries to live righteously. The resultant failure leads him to reliance upon the work of the Cross, which is effectively applied to the root of the matter by the Holy Spirit. The old life is crucified; the new life is manifested.

"We are apt to think that what we have done is very bad, but that we ourselves are not so bad. God is taking pains to show us that we ourselves are wrong, fundamentally wrong. The root trouble is the sinner; he must be dealt with. Our sins are dealt with by the Blood, but we ourselves are dealt with by the Cross. The Blood procures our pardon for what we have done; the Cross procures our deliverance from what we are." -W.N.

"It is for want of a complete or adequate realization of the meaning of the Cross, that so many Christians are carnal, or try to live for God out of themselves. This goes to the root of the ever-present weakness and poverty of spiritual life. There is much prayer for 'revival,' and much effort for 'the deepening of the spiritual life.' The only answer to this is a new knowing of the Cross, not only as to sins and a life of victory over them, but as to Christ as supplanting the natural man." -T. A-S.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9).[/size]

1-14. THE ALL-PERVADING CROSS

"But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:14).

It will save years of frustration and effort for one to understand that prayer can never be learned, or developed. Prayer is the outflow of the new life; as one grows, as the Cross frees the new from the old, there is the growth of effective prayer.

"Without the Cross, prayer becomes a mere religious formality without prayer, the Cross is arrested in its purpose. As the Cross works in us, keeping in the place of death every assertion of the old man, and everything in our natures that is against God, our spirit finds a clear way up to the communion at the throne and a clear way out into conflict with our enemy.

''Prayer is the spring of power in conflict, and conflict gives the proof of the value and need of prayer. It cannot be too frequently emphasized that for the believer, the ground or basis of prayer is the death of Jesus Christ the victory won by the Son of God on Calvary, just as the ground and basis of His intercession at this moment is His propitiation. Away from the Cross prayer becomes nothing more than an ecclesiastical ordinance or a religious exercise expressed in devotional phrases; and I beg of you, when you read a book on prayer, to find out the place in it which the author gives to the Cross, and you will be able to estimate its value." -G.W.

"God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you" (1 Samuel 12:23).

1-15. "DISCIPLE ALL NATIONS"

"If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed" (John 8:31).

The plague of personal work is the quick, the easy, the maneuvered decision. No matter how long it takes, our Lord allows the necessary time for a heart to be prepared of the Spirit in order that it might be truly born of the Spirit. Adequate preparation before bringing the soul to Christ will eliminate much disappointment and frustration (for all concerned) after conversion. Once we see that the Lord Jesus saves individuals with the purpose of making them His disciples, we will aim to be more thorough in our witnessing and subsequent soul-winning.

"The commission given to the apostles was to make disciples, not just 'converts,' of all nations; and we can never set aside our Lord's commands without laying up for ourselves a whole store of unnecessary suffering and frustration. I wonder how many promising 'converts' have been swept into the ranks of the sects whose teachings are based in error, because of this omission?"

"In our day we promote elaborate 'follow-up' schemes to keep our 'converts' in the right way, but I sometimes wonder if a little more time spent right at the outset in ensuring that these converts are properly 'born,' so that they can be receptive of the Spirit's teaching, would not save much heartache and make certain that God's work in their lives is done in His way." -J.C.M.

"Woe to the worthless shepherd that leaveth the flock" (Zechariah 11:17, ASV).

1-16. MUTUAL VIEWPOINT

"That ye may know what is the hope of His calling and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints" (Ephesians 1:18).

In order to share effectively with needy believers it is essential to know what the Father has purposed for His own. And this understanding results from personal growth in the Lord Jesus. Those who are merely well-versed may be able to teach, but they cannot truly share; their understanding of the needs of the heart is deficient, and this becomes all too evident to the hearers. Head-knowledge (study) must be integrated with heart-knowledge (experience) in order for there to be Spirit-motivated sharing.

"The true hope makes all the difference to us in our ministry. Our expectations have been personally proven. It makes possible joy in the midst of sorrow, confidence in the midst of defeat. It changes our attitude toward those to whom we minister. We see them not as they are at the moment but as we know the Lord is going to make them. Then patience and forgiveness are easy, for we already see the Lord's finished work. It changes our prayer for them. We ask not for some little progress or partial blessing for them but for the Lord's complete victory. It changes our teaching ministry to them. Instead of fearfully giving a little more of God's truth, we confidently declare all the counsel of God. There is ever before us the joy of the finished work which we know the Lord is going to accomplish." -A.M.

"Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).

What did John the baptist mean by "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30)? He was referring to that part which determines what he is--his nature; less activity of the old-nature and more activity of the new nature.

You may have heard it said that "if we desire to accept God, He accepts us the way we are, but loves us too much to leave us that way." It's the addition of our new nature that changes us at rebirth because this nature is partaker of Christ's divine nature (1Pet 1:4; Eph 4:24; Col 3:10).

What we do doesn't determine what we are but reveals what we are (Mt 12:33; Luk 6:44). What we are determines what we do and this is all determined by our "nature". A sinner isn't a sinner because he sins. He sins because he's a sinner!

1-17. RESTFUL ACTIVITY

"In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength" (Isaiah 30:15).

There is a great difference between sloth, and rest; between deadness, and quietness. There is also a vast difference between constant nervous busyness, and Spirit-controlled activity; between working for God, and having Him do His work through us. It is the infinite difference between self, and Christ,

"In God and man working together, there is nothing of the idea of a partnership between two partners who each contribute their share to a work. Rather, the true plan is that of co-operation founded on subordination. As the Lord Jesus was entirely dependent on the Father for all His words and all His works, so the believer can do nothing of himself. What he can do of himself is altogether sinful. He must therefore cease entirely from his own doing, and wait for the working of God in him. As he ceases from self-effort, faith assures him that God does what He has undertaken, and works in him.

"And what God does is to renew, to sanctify, and waken all his energies to their most useful power. So that just in proportion as he yields himself a truly passive instrument in the hand of the Father, will he be wielded of Him as the active instrument of His will and power. The soul in which the wondrous combination of quiet passivity with the highest activity is most completely realized, has the deepest experience of what the Christian life is." -A.M.

"So He fed them according to the integrity of His heart; and guided them by the skillfulness of His hands" (Psalm 78:72).

"The blessings of God become confusing when we think they must be earned, because our motives become misguided labors. All His blessings come to us, not by merit but by way of sovereign appointment, which are preordained, being foreknown. To sincerely work for God cannot be discouraged but how to work is the issue because this determines its fruitfulness.

God continually increases the believers walk to involve more from the new man--through the Spirit, than that from the old man. As God ceased (rested) from creating in the natural realm, never needing to repeat it, so does He cause the believer, "from glory to glory", to cease from his old-man-related works. "For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his own works as God did from His" (Heb 4:10).

Works do not produce faith, but is the evidence of faith for, "I will show you my faith by my works” (Jam 2:18). Works are said here to “show faith”, not produce it. Vast difference!" -Netchaplain

1-18. DEVELOPED GIFT

"But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil" (2 Thessalonians 3:3).

Though we receive our faith from Him, it must be developed in us by Him. Undeveloped faith never progresses beyond the babe-in-Christ, milk-of-the-Word stage. "But solid food is for adults that is, for those who through constant practice have their spiritual faculties carefully trained to distinguish good from evil. Therefore leaving elementary instruction about the Christ, let us advance to mature manhood" (Hebrews 5:14-6:1, Weymouth).

"You will never learn faith in comfortable surroundings. God gives us promises in a quiet hour; He seals our covenants with great and gracious words. Then He steps back and waits while we believe; then He lets the tempter come, and the test seems to contradict all that He has spoken. It is then that faith wins its crown. Then is the time to look into His face and say, 'I believe, Lord, that it shall be done as it was told me.'"

"Without trials of faith we should all be ruined. These trials give us opportunities of linking on to the mighty promises of God and finding through the trials come blessing that wonderfully glorifies Him, or else, missing God, turns the blessing into a burden that fills the heart with weariness and pain." -G.W.

"Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy" (James 5:11).

Everything we have of God in our salvation is regulated by our "patience" because Jesus said in Luke 21:19, "By your patience possess your souls” and James wrote, “But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (1:4).

The more we trust that “all things work together for good to those who love God” (Rom 8:28), the lesser is the effort required to apply patience because it's easier to await that which we're assured of.

1-19. NOT "HOW?" BUT "WHAT?"

"And God is able to make all grace abound toward you" (2 Corinthians 9:8).

Once we come to rest in the fact of what He has accomplished for us in Christ, there need be no concern as to how and when He will carry it out in our daily life.

"How many a child of God remains weak and timid because, instead of being occupied with what God has promised, he is considering how it can be fulfilled. But we have nothing to do with the how; it is enough that our Father has given us His Word. Whatever, therefore, may be the nature of the suffering or trial through which we have to pass, let us ever account that God is able to fulfill all His promises.

"Let nothing ever lead us to doubt the certainty of His Word, though we may be utterly at a loss to understand the manner in which He may see fit to accomplish it. We shall then be able to testify, with Joshua of old: 'Not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof' (Joshua 23:14)." -E.H.

Our Father often encourages the weak in faith by giving speedy answers to prayer; but the strong in faith will be further developed by God's delays. Delayed answers to prayer are not only trials of faith, but opportunities of honoring God by our steadfast confidence in Him."

"For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen" (2 Corinthians 1:20).

1-20. SATISFYING PORTION

"God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever" (Psalm 73.26).

Finally, when all else fails us, we find that God is enough. That which we most need in life; love, unfailing love; is abundantly and satisfyingly ours in the Lord Jesus. But we so often seek it elsewhere.

"Nothing can be sweeter than the repose in divine love when it is known and the heart is free to rest in it. The soul may have a long journey to reach it experientially; there may be many needs and exercises to be met and removed on the way; self and the world will have to be learned; but the great end of all our exercises; and, I may add, of all our deliverances; is that we rest in the thoughts of divine love, and that love becomes in a very real way the portion of our hearts. If our hearts are not in the circle of divine love they have really got nothing, for as Christians we have no portion on earth. Thank God! it is a blessed and satisfying portion." -C.A.C.

"There is no reserve in God's love; He has given the best in heaven for the worst on earth, and in this way has rebuked distrust and established confidence, so that 'the works of the devil' might be undone in our hearts. If we only want what God gives us we shall be perfectly happy. Nothing is of real value to us that we cannot take from our Father's hand and thank Him for."

"And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God" (2 Thessalonians

1-21. PREARRANGED

"As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him" (Colossians 2:6).

How readily and eagerly we take His Word when He says, "I go to prepare a place for you" (John 14:2), yet how slow of heart we are to believe that He has prepared a walk for us, here and now! "For we are God's [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us, (taking paths which He prepared ahead of time) that we should walk in them living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live" (Ephesians 2:10, Amp.).

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3, ASV). If you can run over in your mind and find one single blessing with which God might bless us today, with which He has not already blessed us, then what He told Paul is not true at all, because He said, 'God hath....' It is all done, 'It is finished.' God hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies! The great pity of it all is that we are saying 'O God bless us, bless us in this, bless us in that! and it is all done; He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ in the heavenlies. It is our place to believe and receive." -L.L.L.

"According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3).

1-22. FREEDOM TO "BE"

"Having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter"(Romans 7:6, ASV).

The law was applied to the natural man, that he might produce; grace is given to the spiritual man, that He might produce.

"Almost every believer makes the same mistake as the Galatian Christians. Very few learn at conversion at once that it is only by faith that we stand, and walk, and live. They have no conception of the meaning of the Word about being dead to the law, freed from the law, about the freedom with which Christ makes us free (Romans 7:6). Regarding the law as a divine ordinance for our direction, they consider themselves prepared and fitted by conversion to take up the fulfillment of the law as a natural duty. They cannot understand that it is not to the law, but to a living Person, that we are now bound, and that our obedience and growth are only possible by the unceasing faith in His power and life ever working in us (Philippians 2:13)." -A.M.

"Good and holy and perfect as the law of God is, it is entirely powerless either to justify or sanctify. It cannot in any way make the old nature better; neither is it the rule of the new nature. The old man is not subject to it, and the new man does not need it. The new creation has another object before it, and another power that acts upon it, in order to produce what is lovely and acceptable to God Christ the object, realized by the power of the Holy Spirit." -W.K.

"Not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life" (Hebrews 7:16).

1-23. FEET FIRST

"Mary . . . sat at Jesus' feet, and heard His Word. But Martha was encumbered about much serving" (Luke 10:39,40).

A malingering student will make a poor servant; a diligent student will make a good servant. "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed" (2 Timothy 2:15).

"Do not look for service, look for preparation for it. Everyone has to serve an apprenticeship. We do not know what we are to be fitted for, but if we keep at His feet He will prepare us for the very thing for which He has designed us. We hinder both ourselves and His work by attempting things to which we have not been called."

"If you begin with serving (as many do nowadays), you will never truly sit at His feet; whereas if you begin with looking unto Him you will soon serve well, wisely and acceptably. When the serving quiets the conscience, and the sitting is overlooked and neglected, the enemy gains an advantage, for it is at the sitting that the conscience is enlightened, and the pleasure and mind of the Lord become better known. I never met with anyone making his service prominent who knew what it was to sit at the Master's feet; but, thank God, I know indefatigable workers who enjoy sitting at His feet above any service. It is clear that those who abide in Him must be most competent to serve, and most in His confidence, which, after all, is the clue to all effective service" -J.B.S.

"Behold as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters... so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God" (Psalm 123:2).

The responsibility of fruit production is the Lord's. Ours is, as the text discloses, to bear or display it, for it is the vine that produces the fruit and not the branch. "By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples (John 15:8).

This means the fruit, i.e. righteousness, holiness, justification and sanctification always originates from Christ and cannot be replicated, but must be transferred by imputation. “But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (not in ourselves--1 Cor 1:30, 31). -NC

1-24. ABIDE IN ABUNDANCE

"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me" (John 15:4).

The quality of the fruit of the branch depends upon the quality of the life of the vine. Neither quality nor quantity is the product of the branch, for the branch merely receives what is produced by the vine.

"To walk with God in hallowed fellowship is not only the secret of joy and growth, it is the condition of all acceptable service, of all real usefulness. The value of what we do depends very much upon what we are. And what we are depends upon where we abide. The mightiest power for usefulness is the quiet influence of a life that abides habitually in the secret place of the Most High. Such an one dwells in the source of all life, of all purity, of all fruitfulness." -E.H.H.

"It is just a matter of taking a position that is already yours. The enemy has filled the minds of many believers with the delusion that they are poor, and in their poverty they must work and grind and toil in order to buy the blessings which are already theirs in Christ. It is time to see that all you need you have in Christ. There is no need of yours which is not fully met in Him. And you are in Him. You only need to take the position which is already yours. Abide!" -D.T.

"And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work" (2 Corinthians 9:8).

Our warfare is not a win or lose battle but a won war, for Christ, “having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Col 2:15).

This means regardless of how decadent the Lord shows us of our still-indwelling old self and how good we think we're supposed to be, we’re to rest in God’s resolution to it all, in His Son’s atonement and not confide in our works to effect acceptance and assurance.

The ever-abiding sin, self, Satan and society teaches and causes us to depend only on God for us to be “kept in perfect peace” (Isa 26:3). -NC

1-25. AUTHOR OF PEACE

"For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace" (1 Corinthians 14:33).

The day we were saved, total war was declared between sinful self and the Holy Spirit. Lasting peace will come when we rest in Calvary's conquest of sin and self, and allow that victory to be applied by the faithful Spirit of God.

"The Holy Spirit does not reason from what man is for God, but from what God is to man. Souls reason from what they are in themselves as to whether God can accept them. He does not accept you thus; you are looking for righteousness in yourself as a ground of acceptance with Him. You cannot get peace in this way. 'But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us'" (Romans 5:8).

"The Holy Spirit always reasons down from what God is, and this produces a total change in my soul. It is not that I abhor my sins; indeed I may have been walking very well; but it is 'I abhor myself.' The Holy Spirit shows us what we are, and that is one reason why He often seems to be very hard and does not give peace to the soul, as we are not relieved until we frankly, from our hearts, acknowledge what we are. Until the soul comes to that point He does not give it peace He could not; it would be healing the wound slightly. The soul has to go on until it finds there is nothing to rest on but the Cross-proved goodness of God; and then if God be for us, who can be against us?'' -J.N.D.

"And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus"(Philippians 4:7).

1-26. PARTAKERS

"If, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God" (1 Peter 2:20).

Affliction and suffering are the lot of all men, the privilege of all believers. Our sufferings bring forth need, and our need brings forth His comfort and consolation. Blessed need! "As ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation" (2 Corinthians 1:7). Blessed promise!

"If you aspire to be a son of consolation; if you would partake of the priestly gift of sympathy; if you would pour something beyond commonplace consolation into a tempted heart; if you would pass through the intercourse of daily life with the delicate tact that never inflicts pain; you must be content to pay the price of a costly education; like Him, you must suffer."

"There are blessings which we cannot obtain if we cannot accept and endure suffering. There are joys that can come to us only through sorrow. There are revealings of divine truth which we can get only when earth's lights have gone out. There are harvests which can flow only after the plowshare has done its work."

"Comfort does not come to the light-hearted and merry. We must go down into 'depths' if we would experience this most precious of God's gifts comfort, and thus be prepared to be coworkers together with Him."

"I take... pleasure in weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecution, and difficulties, which I endure for Christ's sake, for it is when I am consciously weak that I am really strong" (2 Corinthians 12:10, Wms.).

Confiding in self voids Christ’s place of support in us and only self-condemnation can result because it puts the responsibility of atonement on our works instead of the Lord’s finished works of salvation. We can take pleasure in the good works Christ produces through us, for it is by them our Father is glorified (Mat 5:16). I believe our works can affect our fellowship with God and our eternal rewards (Mat 13:23; Mar 4:20; Luke 16:10-13; 1 Cor.3:13, 14), but they do not determine our union with Him, or His blessings to us in this life. Therefore, we can “rest in God” knowing, “it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13).

It isn’t that we’re not to have confidence. The issue is where confidence is placed and when it is in Christ, there’s no place to be found for a self-condemning conscience. “Beloved, if our heart condemns us not, [then] have we confidence toward God” (1John 3:21).

It’s been well stated that “if we are disappointed it’s because we’ve trusted in the arm of flesh, for God does not disappoint.” -NC

1-27. CHRlST-CONFlDENCE

"For we worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:3).

Contrary to general opinion, there is no place for self-confidence in the Christian life. Confidence is essential, but not from the source of self. The awakened believer is so keenly aware of the sinful self-life that, for him, self-confidence is out of the question. In time, his "O wretched man" complex is replaced by "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 7:24, 25). Christ-confidence is the basis for the healthy Christian's walk. Sinful self-confidence is the basis for the sickly Christian's defeat.

"Our Father takes all things from under our feet until we have nothing left but Him. God has always the highest goal in view, namely, to lead us into the denial of self. Everything is directed toward teaching us to entrust ourselves to Him. Therefore we must often suffer defeat. You fight with all your might against sin and find yourself surrounded by failure. You pray fervently and sincerely: 'O God, help me and stay by me.' But it seems that He does not hear. You cry yet more earnestly for help, but He seems to have no concern for you. Is He then really merciless? No! Just because He is merciful, He cannot help you. If He did, you would not be free from your self-confidence; you would not learn to fight the good fight of faith and thus obtain the victory which the Master has won; you would not learn to say 'the Lord Jesus only,' but you would still continue to say 'Jesus and I.'"

"For the Lord shall be thy confidence" (Proverb 3.26).

1-28. MATRICULATION

"My grace suffices for you, for power matures in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9, Weymouth).

There can be no true and intelligent rejection of the self-life without thorough heart preparation by the Holy Spirit. We read in the Word that self is to be hated and rejected, but the development of this attitude may be long removed from the initial revelation. Years of processing separate Romans Three from Colossians Three, in our experience.

"Why are we so deficient in divine power? Simply because we do not like the way it begins. Its beginning is to hate one's own life, and this is an awful start; but there is no 'tower' built without it. You must refuse human material, or you cannot build to true structure. Power enabled Elisha to take hold of his own clothes and tear them into two pieces. It begins with self-abnegation. This explains the reason why there is so little power. Very often one lingers over his losses like an exile, but he must rise out of it; he must bury his dead out of his sight; it is a great day when that comes to pass, and then he can be useful to others." -J.B.S.

"To be willing to accept crucifixion with Christ, to leave all yourself, your plans and your longings, your abilities and your possessions, all of them at the Cross, so that you only trust and love and live for the Lord Jesus, hurts a great deal. It requires an absolute venture of faith; but beyond it, God says, 'much fruit.' And the way to it is 'into the ground and die it is the only way; His way."

"Most gladly therefore will I boast of my infirmities rather than complain of them; in order that Christ's power may overshadow me" (2 Corinthians 12:9, Weymouth.).

1-29. SACRIFICIAL SELF

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Galatians 6:7).

It is essential for the believer to see that his old nature has been completely rejected by God at Calvary, and that as a "new creation" he is fully and eternally accepted in the Lord Jesus. Otherwise, self will continually seek to be something for God, to please Him, to merit His approbation.

"It is very possible that our sacrifices and self denials may be altogether selfish. Self can pray, and say, What a lovely prayer! It can preach a fine message, and pat itself on the back and say, That was splendid, what a useful man you are! How, then, can it become 'not I, but Christ'? Well, we must above all else see the reality and danger of the thing, we must look at it frankly, and choose to be free of its domination. The worst and the saddest part of it is its deception. It says, How that fits So-and-so, not me. But you must pass sentence upon it, or it will pass sentence upon you."

"Through the victory won on Calvary we enter into newness of life; and as the old nature seeks to assert its supremacy, each uprising of it must be handed over to the Lord Jesus Christ, that He may deal with it. That He has dealt with it, through His death on the Cross, in a way which satisfies God and makes deliverance possible for us, is the foundational fact for Christian life and work." -G.W.

"For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life"(Galatians 6:8).

There’s nothing that can be done against our sinful nature—the “old man”, except continually yield it to the Holy Spirit (Rom 6:13) and He applies the Cross of Christ to it. We take it up, “daily” (Luk 9:23), but He applies it, “so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Gal 5:17).

Neither feel guilty because of the sinful self (1Jo 3:20), nor glory in the divine-partaker of the new self, but glory in the Lord (1Cr 1:31; 2Cr 10:17) because of His continual victory over sin in our lives.

-NC

1-30. SPIRITUAL BALANCE

"Not I, but Christ" (Galatians 2:20).

Any abiding spiritual progress must be based upon our taking sides with God against the old life. Why? "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Romans 8:7). "Enmity" knows no reconciliation; crucifixion is the only alternative!

"The life of Christ is the holiness of Christ. The reason we so often fail in the pursuit of holiness is that the old life, the flesh, in its own strength seeks for holiness as a beautiful garment to wear and enter heaven with. It is the daily death to self out of which the life of Christ rises up." -A.W.T.

"In receiving Christ we receive the divine-human life, a life that is death to the life of fallen nature, which finds its fruit in sin and self. The tragic mistake of thousands of believers is in trying to live in two worlds at the same time in nature and in God, in self and in Christ, in the flesh and in the Spirit, by faith and in independence, by abiding and by effort. To have life is not enough: the life of the Lord Jesus demands the death of the flesh, if that life is to be fully developed and become fruitful in us. Here is the crux of the whole matter."

"That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering, being made conformable unto His death" (Philippians 3:10

1-31. WORTH WAITING FOR

"But ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6:11).

The fact of our position, which we can see in the Word, may take years to realize in life. Many believers feel that their appropriation of a truth must result in same-day experience of that doctrine. It is true that we are often given a foretaste, a brief experience of its reality, but we must then settle down to the daily processing of the Spirit, whereby He slowly and thoroughly translates the apprehended truth into character and walk. Paul testified, "I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:12). He pressed toward the mark.

"As a gift of grace, sanctification is conferred on each believer as soon as he believes. But it is a gift yet held on deposit, 'hid with Christ in God,' to be appropriated through daily communion and gradual apprehension. So, while the believer's realized sanctification appears painfully meager, at most a thin line of light, like the crescent of the new moon, yet he sees it ever complemented by the clear outlines of that rounded wholeness which is his in the Lord Jesus, and into which he is to be daily waxing till he grows to 'the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ' (Ephesians 4:13)" -A.J.G.

"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

2-1. HEART OF THE MATTER

"That I may know Him" (Philippians 3:10).

Immaturity is selfish; maturity is selfless. "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). "The question for the tried and tempted, the harassed and oppressed, is this: 'Which would you rather have, the power of Christ's hand in deliverance from trial, or the sympathy of His heart in the midst of trial?' The carnal mind, the unsubdued heart, the restless spirit, will, no doubt, at once exclaim, 'Oh! let Him only put forth His power and deliver me from this insupportable trial, this intolerable burden, this crushing difficulty. I sigh for deliverance. I only want deliverance.'

"But the spiritual mind, the subdued heart, the lowly spirit, will say, and that without a single particle of reserve, 'Let me only enjoy the sweet company of the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ in my trial, and I ask no more. I do not want even the power of His hand to deprive me of one drop of consolation supplied by the tender love and profound sympathy of His heart. I know He can deliver me, but if He does not see fit to do so, if it does not fall in with His unsearchable counsels, and harmonize with His wise and faithful purpose concerning me so to do, I know it is only to lead me into a deeper and richer realization of His most precious sympathy.'" -C.H.M.

"The same faith that sees glory for us at the end of the path sees God for us all through the path. This is the secret of real strength. What unbelief does is to compare ourselves and our own strength with circumstances. What faith does is to compare God with circumstances."

"For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ" (2 Corinthians 1

“The life of a mature Christian is the life of the vicariously-lived life of Christ. The Lord Himself—through the Spirit, lives His life in us and is evident by the works of righteousness which He does using us.

“I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh (physical body) I live by the faith of the Son of God” (Gal 2:20). “By”, not on the faith of Christ. We live on and in Christ, by or through faith. We do not live on faith but by faith, because it’s Christ we live on.” -NC

“By the faith of the Son of God”: “not that faith which Christ, as man, had, but that of which He is the author and object, by which the just man lives; not upon it, for the believer does not live upon any of his graces, no, not upon faith, but by faith on Christ, the object; looking to Him for pardon, righteousness, peace, joy, comfort, every supply of grace, and eternal salvation: which object is described as "the Son of God"; who is truly God, equal with His Father; so that he did not live upon a creature, or forsake the fountain of living waters, but upon the only begotten Son of God, who is full of grace and truth.” –J Gill

2-2. FACT FINDING

"Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord" (2 Peter 1:2).

We cannot too highly value and appreciate heart-hunger for the Word. It is of the Spirit of Truth. We may have been born again without knowing much of the Bible, but we certainly are not going to grow to any extent apart from a careful and persistent study of the Word of God. Yes, the maturing believer is a Spirit-dependent student of the Scriptures, "whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1.4).

"Christian progress is not a question of attaining to some abstract standard, or of pressing through to some far-off goal. It is wholly a question of seeing God's standard in God's Word. You advance spiritually by finding out what you really are (in Christ), not by trying to become what you hope to be. That goal you will never reach, however earnestly you may strive.

"It is when you see you are dead unto sin that you die to it (daily); it is when you see you are risen that you arise; it is when you see you are a 'new creation' in Him that you (progressively) grow. Seeing the accomplished fact in the Word determines the pathway to the realizing of that fact. The end is reached by seeing, not by desiring or working. The only possibility of spiritual progress lies in our discovering the truth as God sees it; the truth concerning Christ, the truth concerning ourselves in Christ." -W.N.

"Come and see the works of God" (Psalm 66:5).

2-3. NEED, THEN SUPPLY

"Not as though I had already attained. . . but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also l am apprehended of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:12).

The heavenly Husbandman develops a believer on the same principle that He does a tree: planting, growth, consolidation, rest, and then more growth. There are stages. We are shown our sin and need--self. Then we hunger for freedom and life--Christ. This is a progression. At first, we consider the shocking revelation of self the greatest of calamities; later, we realize that it is the pathway to the blessed revelation of our life in the Lord Jesus Christ.

"Before we can take on the likeness of the Lord Jesus, we must see ourselves and know how we look; we must be brought into the place where we are not dismayed nor cast down when we discover how little we are conformed to His image. It is only as we see our need, that we can be supplied." -C.McI.

"It does us no good, but only discourages us if we see our failures and shortages and do not behold the beauty of Christ, and apprehend and experience our sufficiency in Him. On the other hand, if we see only what we are in Him and do not discern our defects; if we do not apprehend that which must be appropriated and worked out in us; if we do not see all that must be put off, and that Christ must be put on in actual control and manifestation, we become self-satisfied and puffed up--we lose our invaluable 'need.'" -C.McI.

"I certainly do count everything as loss compared with the priceless privilege of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (Philippians 3:8, Wms.).

"We should not be looking for confirmation but conformation. Though certain experiences can reveal truth, scripture and not experience is the final source to use as the base of our support because the Word of God shows what everything should be.

Now that we’ve been delivered from sin’s guilt---by His blood, we need continued deliverance from sin’s rule---by His Cross:

Christ’s blood only once applied
But His cross continually
For our old man to die

Our works are not to be the medium for salvation but the evidence of it and wherever we base our assurance for acceptance and security, there our trust for salvation will be." –NC

2-4. FREEDOM'S FOUNDATION

"I have been crucified with Christ, and I myself no longer live" (Galatians 2:20, Wms.).

Upon conversion, the new believer feels that every opposition to a joyous, fruitful Christian life has been overcome once for all. Later, when the world and self begin to insinuate themselves once again, he thinks that determination and self-effort will keep him free. Finally, after a seemingly endless struggle, the defeated believer is brought back to the Cross. Here is the source of liberation from the power of self and the world.

"Sinners are not saved until they trust the Savior, and saints are not delivered until they trust the Deliverer. God has made both possible through the Cross of His Son." -L.S.C.

"The believer can never overcome the 'old man' even by the power of the 'new' apart from the work of the Cross, and therefore the death of Christ is indispensable, and unless the Cross is made the basis upon which he overcomes the 'old nature,' he only drops into another form of morality; in other words, he is seeking by self-effort to overcome sin and self, and the struggle is a hopeless one." -C.U.

"Just as the Lord Jesus came into this world where this old humanity was and came into it not to ally Himself with it but to take it into death by the Cross, even so He now by the Holy Spirit, in regeneration, comes into us where there is this old fallen life and not to ally Himself with it, but to hold it in the place of death by the same means--His Cross." -N.D.

"But may it never be mine to boast of anything but the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world!" (Galatians 6:14, Wms.).

2-5. DEFECTIVE BEGINNING

"Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:24).

Are we aware of the importance of a personal assurance of salvation? Healthy spiritual growth is founded upon it. Many Christians seem unable to enter Romans Six and Eight simply because they are not truly established in Romans Three, Four and Five. Full assurance as to our eternal security in the Lord Jesus is the basis for the ever-deepening experience of our identification with Him.

"The defect in souls in general is the incompleteness of their conversion. It is pardon that is apprehended and not acceptance. Acceptance embraces God's side--how He feels, and this should be chief, for we as sinners have offended Him. The offender has been removed from His eye by a Man--the Lord Jesus Christ, and He can receive us on the ground of the Man who glorified Him in bearing our judgment.

"We cannot enjoy acceptance but in the way in which it was acquired or effected for us, and if we are in the acceptance we know that no improvement of the flesh could commend us to God, and that we cannot be before Him but in Christ. But if we are in any degree dark as to the crucifixion of the old man, we are not in acceptance experientially, we are not in the daily benefit of it, and our liberty by the Spirit can never go beyond our conscious acceptance." -J.B.S.

"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2).

2-6. HEART OF ROMANS

"Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead" (Romans 6:13).

Deliverance from the reign of sin, and liberty in the life of Christ, are set forth as a doctrinal unit in Romans Six, Seven and Eight. This area of truth has but one key--the Cross. This is the great master key to spiritual life and liberty.

When we begin to comprehend Romans Six, we know that our death in Christ unto sin was completed at Calvary. When we have been in Romans Seven for a time, we come to realize that we have been struggling to produce that which God has already accomplished for us in Christ. When we thereby come to Romans Eight, we know at last that the Holy Spirit will produce in our experience what God completed for us on the Cross and in Christ our life.

"In Romans Six we see the foundation of our deliverance--the fact that we died with Christ; and also the conditions of our deliverance--that we reckon ourselves dead unto sin and yield to God as those that are alive from the dead. Romans Eight tells us the means and the method of our deliverance--that it is through the blessed Holy Spirit alone that we are actually delivered in everyday life, from sin's reign; the moment we cease from all our own efforts and let Him do all the work, He will begin delivering us from the power of sin. How long it takes some of us to come to the end of our own efforts can be seen in Romans Seven!" -W.R.N.

"That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Romans 8:4).

2-7. GROW TO SHARE

"For they disciplined us only a short time, as it seemed proper to them; but He does it for our good, in order that we may share His holy character" (Hebrews 12:10, Wms.).

It is only natural to feel that our need requires immediate victory, but the truth is that we cannot come to maturity apart from the Holy Spirit's processing and development of our life, day by day. A quick and easy victory would cripple our usefulness in these two ways: we would not understand the all-important principle of processing; we would not appreciate the needs of others. If we are unable to share, we abide alone like the grain of wheat that does not die.

"So often in the battle we go to the Lord, and pray, and plead, and appeal for victory, for ascendancy, for mastery over the forces of evil and death, and our thought is that in some way the Lord is going to come in with a mighty exercise of power and put us into a place of spiritual maturity as in an act. We must have this mentality corrected. What the Lord does is to enlarge us to possess. He takes us through some exercise, through some experience, takes us by some way which means our spiritual expansion, an increase of spirituality so we occupy the larger place spontaneously because of our growth 'I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased' (Exodus 23:29, 30)." -T. A-S.

"Now for the time being no discipline [child-training] seems to be pleasant; it is painful; later on, however, to those who are trained by it, it yields the fruit of peace which grows from upright character" (Hebrews 12:11, Wms.).

2-8. SUBTLE SELF

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10).

A healthy spiritual birth results in the falling away of many of the more obvious works of the flesh, often causing the new believer to claim 2 Corinthians 5:17 or Galatians 2:20 as his testimony. However, for the Lord Jesus to be fully manifested, it is going to involve a lifetime of the Holy Spirit's deep dealing with the more subtle and deadly characteristics of the self-life"always delivered unto death" (2 Corinthians 4:11).

"By the daily 'supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ' (Philippians 1:19), the believer united to his Risen Lord 'grows continually to a more perfect knowledge and likeness of his Creator,' and grows up 'after the image of Him that created him, in the sphere where 'Christ is all, and in all.'

"The child naturally grows up in the likeness of his father, and the new life communicated to the redeemed grows up in the likeness of Him who is the Creator of the new creation if so be that the death with Christ is unflinchingly recognized, and 'old things' are truly allowed to pass away to make room for the growth of the new man 'which is after God . . . created in righteousness, and holiness of truth' (Ephesians 4:24)."

"How many earnest and religious people belong to 'the Old Adam Improvement Society.' It is the recognition of the Christ-life, it is union with the Risen Christ, that men need instead of the culture of the religious self-life." -E.H.

"Unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13).

2-9. EXPERIENCE SUPERSEDED

"And they who know Thy Name will put their trust in Thee" (Psalm 9:10).

Our experiences must be judged by God's Word, never the Word judged by our experiences. Normally, the Spirit of Truth will reveal a truth to us from the Scriptures and, as we exercise faith in what we have been shown, will begin to take us into the experience of it. Abnormally, a Christian will yearn for an 'experience,' and then attempt to find corroboration for it in the Word.

"Knowledge must carry the torch before faith." Always give God's Word first place, "for the Word of God liveth and worketh, and is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, yea, to the inmost parts thereof, and judging the thoughts and imaginations of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12, Cony.).

"A person may easily know his sins forgiven, but it is a further truth to know that he himself has 'died to sin.' He finds this conflicts with his experience. Suppose I tell you a debt of a thousand pounds which you owed was paid by someone, it would not be a question of experience, but of simply believing my statement. Just so with God. He tells us our sins are forgiven, and it is a question whether we believe Him. But when He tells us we have died to sin, we look inside and say, 'Ah, sin is still at work; how is that?' A person must be taught of God to know really the truth that he has died to sin." -J.N.D.

"It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God" (Luke 4:4).

2-10. PEACE AND REST

"The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me" (Psalm 138:8).

After the believer enters into life by faith, he wonders why it was so difficult for him to see that it was all of grace--the humble reception of a finished work. And yet he goes through the faithless struggle once again before he sees that his daily Christian life is also a finished work--complete in Christ.

"'God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord' (1 Corinthians 1:9). What believers need is the simple faith that the establishing in Christ, day by day, is God's work--a work that He delights to do, in spite of all our weakness and unfaithfulness, if we will but trust Him for it. To the blessedness of such faith, and the experience it brings, many can testify. What peace and rest, to know that there is a Husbandman who cares for the branch, to see that it grows stronger; who watches over every hindrance and danger, who supplies every needed aid!

"What peace and rest, fully and finally to give up our abiding into the care of the Father, and never have a wish or thought, never to offer a prayer or engage in an exercise connected with it, without first having the glad remembrance that what we do is only the manifestation of what our Father is doing in us! The establishing in Christ is His work: He accomplishes it by stirring us to watch, and wait, and work." -A.M.

"Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, . . . is God" (2 Corinthians 1:21).

2-11. PROFIT

"Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ--sharing His inheritance with Him; only we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory" (Romans 8:17, Amp.).

The term "profit and loss" is reversed in the Christian life to "loss and profit." The principle never varies: our losses are all in the realm of the old, never the new. Every loss in the life of self brings greater gain and profit in the new--our life in Christ. And, conversely, every gain for the self-life is loss for our growth and His glory. "But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ" (Philippians 3:7).

"It is not the design of God to deprive His children of happiness, but only to pour the cup of bitterness into that happiness which the believer has in anything outside of Christ." -F.F.

"Everything that tries us, that is a check upon us, that causes exercise of heart, and makes us sensible of weakness in ourselves, is of the nature of chastisement (child-training). It may come in the way of difficulties in the path of faith; or in the shape of such trials and sorrows as are common to all men--loss of property, loss of health, or bereavement; or it may be as the governmental consequences of sin; but in one way or other all have it. It is 'for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness' (Hebrews 12:10). That is, it serves to break down that which is not of God in us, that the life of the Lord Jesus might be made manifest." -C.A.C.

"When He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10).

2-12. THE CROSS FOR SELF

"I have been crucified with Christ" (Galatians 2:20, ASV).

The Cross is the height of paradox; it is at once God's greatest agony, and His eternal glory. For the growing believer it means daily crucifixion, and at the same time freedom from the penalty and the power of sin and self. "But may it never be mine to boast of anything but the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world!" (Galatians 6:14, Wms.).

"We need to enter deeply into the truth that Christ the Beloved Son of the Father could not return to the glory of Heaven until He had first given Himself over to death. As this great principle opens up to us, it will help us to understand how in our life, and in our fellowship with the Lord Jesus, it is impossible for us to share the fullness of His life until we have first in very deed surrendered ourselves every day as having died to sin and the world."

"Many believers appear to think that when once they have claimed Christ's death in the fellowship of the Cross, and have counted themselves crucified with Him, they may now consider it as past and done with. They do not as yet understand that it is in the crucified Christ, and in the fellowship of His death, that they are to abide daily and unceasingly. The fellowship of the Cross is to be the life of a daily walk--His taking the form of a servant, His humbling Himself and becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross; this mind that was in the Lord Jesus is to be the disposition that marks our daily life."

"Have this mind [attitude] in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5, ASV).

2-13. CONVICTED, OR FILLED?

"And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts" (Galatians 4:6).

When the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, it is to remove self from the throne of our hearts. When the Holy Spirit fills us, it is to place the Lord Jesus on the throne of our hearts. Ours is the choice--"not I, but Christ" (Galatians 2:20); His is the work, for He is "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:2).

"The great secret of the Christian life is found in ceasing from self, in which the power of the Cross manifests itself in us. We all know how our Lord Jesus, ere He could receive the new life from the Father in glory, and the gift of the Holy Spirit through whom He could impart His life to His people, had first to give up the life He lived upon earth. He had to take His place among the dead in utter weakness and helplessness before He could live again by the power of God. His death on the Cross was indispensable to the life of the Spirit.

"And as it was with Christ, so it must be with us. As we yield ourselves to be united with Him in the likeness of His death, we can share with Him in the glory and power of the life of the Spirit. To know what the Holy Spirit means, implies the knowing of what death means. The Cross and the Spirit are inseparable. The soul that understands that the death to self is in Christ the gate to true life, is in the right way to learn what and who the Holy Spirit is." -A.M.

"If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25).

The way of the cross ended for Christ at His death but continues with us--with our old nature, even after our rebirth. Being born again is an irrevocable occurrence (Rom 11:29) and involves our being positioned with Christ through co-crucifixion first (Gal 2:20), then co-resurrection and co-ascension with Him (Eph 2:5, 6).

Christ’s cross effected atonement for sin and our initial co-crucifixion effected freedom from the guilt of sin (Rom 8:1) and its’ ruler-ship (Rom 6:12, 14). Being void of sin’s guilt allows us to be in a state of being freed from its’ rule--by the on-going co-crucifixion of our old nature (“take up his cross daily” and “die daily”).

It has been said that “religion is man reaching out to God but Christianity is God reaching out to man”. Well intentioned as they may be, many attempt to establish acceptance with God through their own means but as we know, “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Pro 16:25). We must continually remind ourselves the way of acceptance is the way of the Cross. I like explaining the Cross in that the vertical axis has an arrow pointing downward, bringing God down to us and the horizontal axis brings us to one another. The vertical axis is maintained when the horizontal axis is performed (1Jo 4:20; Mat 22:37-40).

“He must increase, but I must decrease” (John the Baptist; John 3:30). Our new nature from Christ will increase, as He Himself cannot vary (Hbr 13:8; Mal 3:6), “strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man” or new nature (Eph 3:16), as we decrease in our old nature by the ongoing co-crucifixion.

God loves us and who we are, with the identity of our personhood apart from the old nature. It isn’t the person He wants to decrease but the person’s old nature because the person is eternally indwelled with the Spirit (John 14:16) in our “divinely-partaken” (2Pe 1:4) new nature.

“We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (1Jo 3:2), in our co-glorified body (Phl 3:21; Rom 8:23) upon “the redemption of our body (Rom 8:23). -NC

2-14. CONTINUOUS CROSS

"For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake" (2 Corinthians 4:11).

The indwelling Lord Jesus is the source of our life of liberation; the Cross is the means to it. As we abide in Him and He in us, we are to reckon upon the finished work of Calvary to deal progressively with self. It is on this basis alone that the life of Jesus will be manifested in our mortal flesh (2 Corinthians 4:11).

"God has taken the old creation and has condemned it in Christ, and is now working on the new creation. There is no place in the plan of God for the betterment of the old creation. He does not bring about some kind of transformation of the old man so as to produce some kind of resemblance to Christ in Christian character and conduct. There is only one place for the old creation, and that is the Cross.

"But it is not enough for us to say it is there crucified with Christ. Crucifixion was a lingering death, and while we stand once for all upon the fact of God, which is eternal and unchangeable, when our Lord Jesus Christ went to the Cross He took more than our sins with Him; He took our old man and dealt with the source of all our sin, and dealt with it satisfactorily. While we stand on that fact, there has to be the daily working out of the victory which Christ has won for us; there has to be the daily dying to this old self. The Holy Spirit has to work into us the death of the Lord Jesus Christ in all its wonderful power and purpose." -G.W.

"Being made conformable unto his death" (Phil 3:10).

2-15. INDWELT TO BE FILLED

"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you" (Romans 8:9).

The believer knows that he is indwelt by the Holy Spirit on the testimony of the written Word; others know when the believer is filled with the Holy Spirit by the growing manifestation of the Living Word.

"There are believers who need the reminder that deeper than mind and feeling and will, deeper than the soul, where these have their seat, in the depths of the renewed spirit, there comes, at re-birth, the Holy Spirit to dwell forever. His indwelling is there, first of all, and all through, to be recognized by faith. Even when I cannot see the least evidence of His working, I am quietly and reverently to believe that He dwells in me. In that faith I am restfully and trustfully to count upon His working, and to wait for it. In that faith I must very distinctly deny my own wisdom and strength, and in childlike self-abnegation depend upon Him to work.

"His first workings may be so feeble and hidden that I can hardly recognize them as coming from Him; they may appear to be nothing more than the voice of conscience, or the familiar sound of some Bible truth. Here is the time for faith to hold fast the Master's promise and the Father's gift, and to trust that the Holy Spirit is within and will guide. Out of the hidden depths His power will move and take possession of mind and will, and the indwelling in the hidden recesses of the spirit will grow into a being filled with His fullness." -A.M.

"Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His" (Romans 8:9).

We do well to know that the Christian life is to be the vicariously-lived Christ-life; not us trying to live the Christ-life but a “yielded life to God” (Rom 6:13), so that Christ can un-hinderingly live His life in and by us—through His Spirit. This involves understanding that we partake of all godly attributes, e.g. righteousness, justification, sanctification, holiness, etc., by way of imputation ((1Cr 1:30), not impartation, because everything we have in Christ originates from and is permanently retained (Jude 1:24) by Him. –NC

2-16. LEGAL CONFLICT

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1)

If we are weak in understanding the principle of complete justification by faith, we will be strong in seeking to produce our own sanctification.

"In Romans Seven Paul is describing the inevitable conflict that every believer knows when he undertakes to lead a holy life on the principle of legality. He feels instinctively that the law is spiritual, but that he himself, for some unexplained reason, is fleshly, carnal, and in bondage to sin. This discovery is one of the most heart-breaking a Christian ever made. Yet each one must and does make it for himself at some time in his pilgrimage.

"The believer finds himself doing things he knows to be wrong, and which his inmost desires are opposed to; while what he yearns to do he fails to accomplish, and does, instead, what he hates. But this is the first part of a great lesson which all must learn who would matriculate (enroll) in God's school. It is the lesson of no confidence in 'the flesh'; and until it is learned there can be no true progress in growth. The incorrigibility of the flesh must be realized before one is ready to turn altogether from self to Christ for sanctification, as he has already done for justification." -H.A.I.

"As conviction of guilt goes before known justification, so the experiential knowledge of self before sanctification. No effort clears the guilt; no effort effects the growth."

"That they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith" (Acts 26:18).

The enemy of the believer can hinder his fellowship with God but cannot produce anything against his union with God (John 10:29; Rom 8:35, 38, 39). Understanding our position in Christ helps us to properly deal with our condition in life.

The Father has identified the believer’s spiritual life with His Son in where He is—in Heaven with the Father (Eph 2:6) and what He is—Son of the Father (Rom 8:16).

Our condition on Earth—victorious or not, cannot effect our position in Heaven because “it is finished” (John 19:30). Regardless of our understanding, the knowledge of our place in Heaven can always be used as an aid while we “endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2Ti 2:3), “because as He is, so are we in this world” (1Jo 4:17).

2-17. HIGHLY PLACED

"O our God . . . we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon Thee" (2 Chronicles 20:12).

Many believers have gone only as far as justification can take them--spiritual birth, and a bit beyond. There they stagnate, in dire need of the fresh streams of living water that come from seeing their position in Christ. "God . . . hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3). "Always begin with your position, where you are; and then think of your condition, what you are." -R.P.

"Christians are at their wits' end. Many have given up the fight. They still go to church; but secretly they feel that victory is out of the question. They have no weapons for such an hour. Frankly, they have capitulated to the prince of this world, for all their efforts to rout the foe have failed.

"But victory is the believer's right, as truly his as the air he breathes. However, he must understand the conditions. He must see himself enthroned with Christ. He must see himself according to God's own Holy Word, as crucified with the Lord Jesus, dead, buried, raised and made to sit in heavenly places with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Without this he will go down in ignominious defeat in spite of all his strivings and his prayers. With this position he is more than conqueror through Him who loved him and gave Himself for him." -F.J.H.

"For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith"(1 John 5:4).

2-18. DEVOTED DISCIPLE

"Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love" (1 Thessalonians 1:3).

The Cross cost God all that He had, for us. That same Cross will cost us all that we are, for Him, for growth, for others."For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you" (2 Corinthians 4:11,12).

"Devotion, utter devotion, to God's purpose concerning His people, is going to make the uttermost demand upon any servant of God. It is going to test and find out our spirit of service. And if we are going to be used of God in this utter way, it is going to bring us to the point where we have nothing left to fall back upon, either of personal interest, position, or blessing: it is simply a matter of God, and God only! If God does not do it, we are finished. We have no alternative; we have no second line; we are in this matter of the Lord's purpose to the last drop of blood. The purpose of God in His people will demand that. It is no use--we cannot have any alternatives; we cannot have a second course: it is everything or nothing." -T. A-S.

"There are those who would be more useful in the Lord's work if only they were more devoted. They are absorbed in something else, and this not only distracts them from their work, but when they do set themselves to it, there is not that maturity, that finished condition of soul, that knowledge of hearts, and of the way in which the Word suits itself to their needs, which gives lasting value to ministry." -J.N.D.

"They loved not their lives unto the death" (Revelation 12.11).

Our decisions are based on what we desire and for the believer, the Father—through the Spirit, is ever at work causing us to choose rightly. “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for [His] good pleasure” (Phil2:13). “Therefore choose life that both thou and thy seed may live” (Deu 30:19).

Self cannot cast out self anymore then “Satan can cast out Satan”, so it must be done by an external entity—the Holy Spirit. “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Gal 5:17).

This accomplishment is not a legal matter, such as our good works overcoming the indwelling sin, because our good works are for the sole purpose of acknowledging God (Mat 5:16). It’s a matter of Grace, by just being aware of our old, Adamic nature and continually yielding it to Christ’s atonement, then“casting your care” of it on Him (1Pe 5:7). The Spirit through the Cross’s power will “bind the strong man” (Mat 12:29) and you will noticeably grow in your fellowship with the Father and the Son. -NC

“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD (Zec 4:6).

2-19. NOT OBLIGATED

"The carnal mind is enmity against God" (Romans 8:7).

Early in the Christian life we naturally feel that it is our obligation to overcome self and become spiritual. We do not yet realize that time and processing are required before we are able to give up self-effort for our growth. It is the work of the Holy Spirit, not our obligation. "God hath chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit" (2 Thessalonians 2:13).

"

The self-life is surely our first and most bitter foe, and the believer who will serve God acceptably must learn His way of victory over this subtle and dangerous enemy. The flesh is irrecoverably fallen and you and I make no real progress in the Christian life until we have learned in experience to say with the apostle: 'For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing' (Romans 7:18)." -J.C.M.

"Paul's great endeavor, in all his great struggle of Romans Seven, was to make 'the flesh,' his old self-life, consent to do that holy law which his new self approved. Paul had not yet despaired of himself. The fact is, he had not yet realized the absolute distinction between the old and the new creations. And it was through this terrible experience that he found the new or 'inward' man to be distinct from the old man; that the realm of 'the spirit' was absolutely separate from that of 'the flesh', that all of the old self, with its life and energy, was to be despaired of, not sanctified."

"For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Romans 8:7).

2-20. SAFE BEYOND QUESTION

"Neither give place to the devil" (Ephesians 4:27).

To a large extent, we will be pawns of the devil until we stand on the specific facts of the Bible and assert, "I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, and am a new creation in Him on the basis of the finished work of Calvary. He is my life; my death in Him on the Cross separated me from the dominion of all the old creation. As far as my Lord and I are concerned, Satan, sin, self, the world, and the law, all are on the other side of that death." "We never get into conflict with Satan until we realize our privileges in Christ. We cannot cross the Jordan without finding the Canaanites in the land."

"Satan may challenge my clearance and my acceptance; he may raise all kinds of questions about what I am and what I have done, but he can raise no questions as to the worthiness or acceptance of my Savior. The forgiven man is on an altogether new ground with God; he is on the ground of grace--grace which is set forth in Christ. The apprehension of this is redemption, and it puts the soul beyond the reach of the oppression and harassing of the enemy." -C.A.C.

"If the first step in the Christian course were definitely understood the saints would have a happier time. If they saw that the power of the old man was broken on the Cross, and that in Christ they are new creations before God, they would walk here in deliverance. 'You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.'" -J.B.S.

"Your great accuser, the Devil, is going about like a roaring lion to see whom he can devour. Withstand him, firm in your faith" (1 Peter 5:8,9, Wey.).

2-21. ONE STANDARD--CHRIST

"So then let us once for all quit the elementary teaching about Christ and continue progressing; toward maturity"(Hebrews 6:1, Wms.).

When the standard of the Christian life is low, the responsibility for growth is placed upon the believer. But when it is known that God's standard for us is His Son, all expectation of maturity must be placed in Him--"for it is God which worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).

"The Lord Jesus Christ is the Christian's very life, and the Holy Spirit dwells within our spirit to manifest Him, to work out all that is in Him and to reproduce Him in us. We must remember that there is something in the sight of God that is higher than work. There is Christ-likeness. That is our Father's purpose, and it is His work." -A.M.

"It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to the Lord Jesus. A holy ministry is an awful weapon in the hands of God." -R.M.Mc.

"In a great many evangelical churches the Gospel of salvation is magnificently presented, seekers are led to Christ; but the totality of the Gospel, the Gospel in its ultimate category, is by no means so clearly presented, nor maybe even understood by teacher as well as pupil. It is evidenced by exhortation to Christian living being mainly challenges to pray more, study more, give more, witness more, surrender more. The emphasis is predominantly on the active dedication of the Christian to his Lord, and to a much less degree on the dynamic remolding of the believer by his Lord."

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:10).

I thank the Lord and WithChrist.org for allowing us to continue to share the Hungry Heart material with one another!
I'll be posting two each for four days so all the websites who receive this will catch up to the non-websites I message this material.

2-22. WAITING ON GOD

"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him" (Psalm 37:7).

In times of crisis, we are prone to question His care; in times of calm, we tend to forget our need of His care.

"Don't look at earthly difficulties. Saul said, 'Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest not. . . therefore said I, The Philistines will come down now upon me' (1 Sam. 13:11,12). It is fatal to look around and at consequences, especially in times of crisis, for it will be impossible to be still, and wait God's time for deliverance. Jesus came to them in the fourth watch of the night (Matthew 14:25). It is always His way. God is never behind time! However dark the path may be, wait; do not go before Him, don't force yourself, like Saul. 'The crisis demands action,' we say! Nay, 'dwell in stillness and wait for clearness'--wait until you are sure of the will of God, and leave the 'Philistines' to Him." -T. A-S.

"Victory comes through the reckoning of faith and not through struggling and striving. 'But,' it may be asked, 'are we not exhorted to 'fight the good fight'? Yes, that is so, but you must please finish the text, 'Fight the good fight of faith,' and faith never struggles for victory. Faith stands in victory."

"The unbelieving heart looks at the circumstances, and leaves God out. Faith, on the contrary, looks only at God, and leaves circumstances out. Faith delights in man's extremity, simply because it is God's opportunity. It delights in being 'shut up' to God--in having the platform thoroughly cleared of the creature, in order that God may display His glory."

'My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him" (Psalm 62:5).

2-23. MOUNT SINAI, MOUNT ZION

"For you have not come to a material object all ablaze with fire, and to gloom and darkness and storm and trumpet-blast and the sound of words" (Hebrews 12:18, Wey.).

Most of us know that we are not under the Law as summarized in the Ten Commandments, yet we continue to labor under the principle of law. We seek to attain, instead of to obtain. Not until we are driven to the end of Romans Seven will we know the freedom of Romans Eight.

"So long as one thinks that his blessing depends in any way, or in any degree, upon himself, he is under the shadow of Sinai, and naturally we all gravitate in that direction. Many truly converted persons are more occupied with themselves, and in trying to improve their own condition, than in seeking to learn the grace of God. The result is that where there is a shallow work in the soul they get lifted up with pride and conceit, and perhaps deceive themselves so far as to think there is no sin in them.

"On the other hand, if souls are upright and sincere they get into terrible distress, and experience what it is to have to do with Sinai-blackness, darkness, and tempest, so that a holy man like Moses could only 'exceedingly fear and quake.' Thank God! we are not come to that mountain, but to another--even to Mount Zion." -C.A.C.

"On the contrary you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the ever-living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to countless hosts of angels, to the great festal gathering and Church of the first-born, whose names are recorded in Heaven" (Hebrews 12:22,23, Wey.).

2-24. ABIDING FAITH

"As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him" (Colossians 2:6).

One day we came to Him in utter need and reliance, and received life. Every day we are to abide in Him in utter need and reliance, that He may live that life in and through us. We are born again by faith, and we are to live anew by faith. "He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).

"There are earnest Christians who are jealous for a free Gospel, with acceptance of Christ, and justification by faith alone. But after this they think everything depends on their diligence and faithfulness. While they firmly grasp the truth, 'justified by faith,' they have hardly noticed the larger truth, 'the just shall live by faith.' They have not yet understood what a perfect Savior the Lord Jesus is, and how He will each day do for the sinner just as much as He did the first day when they came to Him.

"They know not that the life of grace is always and only a life of faith, and that in the relationship to the Lord Jesus the one daily and unceasing duty of the disciple is to believe, because believing is the one channel through which Divine grace and strength can flow into the heart of man. The old nature of the believer remains evil and sinful to the last; it is only as he daily comes, all empty and helpless, to his Savior to receive of His life and strength, that he can bring forth the fruits of righteousness to the glory of God." -A.M.

"Rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving" (Colossians 2:7).

__________________________________________________________________________ __________________

Fellowship with God is the ultimate obtainment with man and the degree of that fellowship is determined by the nearness of its union. To be in Christ involves more unification than to follow Him. To follow Christ is to attain an exemplary of Christ's life but to be in Christ is to obtain the life of Christ Himself which He lives out in us. “I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20).
-NC

2-25. UNITY OF DESIGN

"So now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death" (Philippians 1:20).

If we look to other Christians as examples to follow, we will soon be discouraged by the prevailing low standard. If we look to Christ as our example, we will be utterly discouraged because of His infinitely high standard. Hence it is essential that we understand that the Lord Jesus Christ is our life; He is not a legal example to emulate, but the source of life from which we grow.

"It is not in any conventional standard of frames and feelings that the disciple is to find the measure of attainment required of him. It is not by any painful reproducing of another's spiritual history that he is to acquire the true comfort of spirit which he longs for.

Outward imitation, though it be of the perfect Example Himself, has little place in the order of spiritual growth--little place because little possibility. 'Without Me (i.e., apart from Me, in separation from Me) ye can do nothing.' To abide in Christ is the only secret of Christlikeness; for only thus is obtained the likeness of unity, which is perfect and enduring, instead of the likeness of conformity, which is only partial and transient." -A.J.G.

"In the pathway of discipline and trial we learn by bitter experience the truth of Paul's confession, 'In me. . . in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.' Coupled with that is the lesson that God waits with infinite patience, like the potter, to work out a design and beauty with such frail material." -M.H.F.

"And He is the head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence" (Colossians 1:18).

2-26. ACCEPTABLE CONSECRATION

"The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Romans 8:7).

If a Christian does not realize his identification with Christ in His death, he does not know true consecration. Crucifixion is the path to, and foundation of, consecration. The deeper truths are not entered into through consecration--they are its basis. "The price of consecration is crucifixion."

"'Present yourself unto God as alive from the dead' (Romans 6:13). This is the true ground of consecration. For believers to 'consecrate themselves to God' ere they have learnt their union with Christ in death and resurrection is only to present to God the members of the natural man, which He cannot use. Only those 'alive from the dead'--that is, having appropriated their likeness with Him in death--are bidden to present their members as instruments unto God."

"The modern teaching of consecration, which is tantamount to the consecration of the 'old man,' seeks to bypass the death sentence and therefore only leads to frustration and failure. When, however, you and I are prepared, in simple humility, to make the fact of our death with Christ our daily basis of life and service, there is nothing that can prevent the uprising and outflow of new life, and meet the need of thirsty souls around us." -J.C.M.

"Therefore, brethren, we are debtors bound not to the Flesh, that we should live after the Flesh [but to the Spirit]" (Romans 8:12, Cony.).

2-27. FACTUAL FREEDOM

"You were set free from the tyranny of sin" (Romans 6:18, Wey.).

There are two extremes that keep many of us in bondage. The one is ignorance as to the possibility of freedom; the other, ignorance as to the extent of freedom. Careful attendance to the facts of the Word will solve both these crippling conditions.

"The New Testament teaches that the flesh is representatively dead in virtue of the Cross, but it nowhere says it will become actually dead by standing on that fact. What it does say is that, when reckoning the fact true, self will lose its governing power over me. In Romans Six we find that through the death of Christ, sin shall not have dominion over you--the idea is of bondage, ruling, governing, dominating. There is no such view presented as the annihilation of the thing, the exclusion of its presence, but the loss of its governing power. So you see if we are looking for the actual death of the old nature in us, we are looking for something that will never come to pass in this life." -N.D.

"Our Lord has never promised that we shall be able to look within, and say that self is gone. Whilst we really believe God's Word that we have died with Christ unto sin, and count upon Him as the Living One to manifest His life through us, others will see that self is inoperative, whilst we are occupied with Christ."

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free" (Galatians 5:1).

2-28. CANAAN CONFLICT

"We will pass over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, that the possession of our inheritance . . . may be ours" (Numbers 32:32).

If our Lord were to give rest from the processing required for spiritual growth, by what means would He accomplish His work in us? True, the war has been won at Calvary, but there are many "mopping up" battles to be fought. Victory is ours, but we must learn how to wear our armor and handle our weapons. We must also come to know and appreciate our Captain as we enter into what He has accomplished on our behalf.

"The Christian who imagines that life in the Promised Land is one of rest from temptation and conflict, is due for a surprise. There is not less temptation, but more strong and subtle temptation. There is no less conflict, but more constant conflict. The difference lies in the fact that in Canaan the battle is not fought under our own leadership, but under that of the Victorious Man with the drawn sword, who has never suffered defeat. It is not rest from conflict, but rest in conflict. In Canaan, Israel lost only one battle in seven years, and that was because of culpable disobedience and sin." -O.S.

"It has been well said that spiritual believers are honored with warfare in the front line areas. There the fiercest pressure of the enemy is known. But they are also privileged to witness the enemy's crushing defeat, so abundant is the power of God, and thus highly is the spiritual believer honored." -L.S.C.

"No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.... This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord" (Isaiah 54:17).

2-29. LIBERATED From LEGALITY

"For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).

One of the most subtle, tenacious, and all-pervading errors amongst Christians is slavery to the legal principle (the Galatian error). And, as in deliverance from the power of sin, there is no freedom from law apart from the death we shared in Christ on the Cross. "You too in the body of Christ have ended your relation to the law" (Romans 7:4, Wms.).

"It is a harmful perversion of the truth of God to teach (as did the Puritan theologians) that while we are not to keep the law as a means of salvation, we are under it as a 'rule of life.' Let a Christian only confess, 'I am under the law,' and straightway Moses fastens his yoke upon him, despite all his protests that the law has lost its power.

"Men have to be delivered from the whole legal principle, from the entire sphere where law reigns, ere true liberty can be found. This was accomplished on the Cross. There we 'died unto the law' (Galatians 2:19); we were there 'discharged from the law' (Romans 6:14). And those who believe this enter the blessed sphere where grace reigns. The Holy Spirit, indwelling the believer, performs in him the will of God, whose will, at last, is a delight (Romans 8:3,4; 12:2)." -W.R.N.

"Law taught me to love my neighbors as myself--made my love for self the measure of my duty to my neighbor. Christianity looks for having no self at all, but giving up ourselves for our neighbors."

"He Himself, through Jesus Christ, accomplishing through you what is pleasing to Him" (Hebrews 13:21, Wms.).

Pre-cross, Christ’s disciples would “take up their cross” (Mat 16:24). This involved emulating Christ’s pre-cross life of cheerfully and patiently enduring afflictions and evil, which was just an external work performed by themselves until Christ’s ascension provided the Spirit’s internal work of applying Christ’s cross to our old self (Rom 8:13). Everything pre-cross was externally temporary. Everything post-cross is internally eternal (John 14:16).

The Blood of Christ addresses the symptom—sins, which provides forgiveness from sins (Eph 1:7); the Cross of Christ addresses the cause—sin (old self), which provides immunity to the tyranny of sin (Rom 6:12, 14).

Before the Spirit was given (John 7:39), our sinful nature could only be identified and addressed externally through legal obedience and the old nature still ruled the believer’s thoughts and emotions. Now that the Spirit has been given He, not us, restrains our sinful nature (Gal 5:17), which is still present (Rom 7:14-25), by His application of the Cross. The old nature, which remains post-regeneration, still effects our thoughts and emotions but not as it did pre-regeneration—as a ruler (Rom 6:12, 14). -NC

2-30. ADMINISTRATION OF THE CROSS -MJS

"For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3, ASV).

It is futile for us to attempt to curb our sins while we ignore their source, the indwelling principle of sin. In trimming the branches (sins), we strengthen the root (self). Rather, as we count upon the finished work of Calvary, the Holy Spirit will apply the Cross to the old life. And as that death cuts deeper and deeper into the root, the branches will wither and fall away.

"The Lord Jesus has been waiting for us to come to the end of our own efforts. He sends the call, 'Come back to the Cross.' At last we can see we have been standing and working on the wrong ground, and we hear Him say, 'It is you who are in My way. I can do My work myself. I simply need empty vessels. You parted with your sins, but you kept yourself. Come now, part with yourself, take your place where I put you. When I died you were in Me on that Cross.' 'Now I see! What next, Lord?' 'Now you pass to another sphere where you become aware that you are joined to Me as your life.'"

"Our identification with Christ in His death was a death unto Sin--the principle of Sin as a master and a tyrant--Sin, not sins. The Holy Spirit is ready to apply that finished work of death to the depth of our self-life, until Sin loses its mastery at point after point. It goes deeper than the cutting off of visible and external things. The Cross deals with the cause, not symptoms."

"Christ, who is our life" (Colossians 3:4).

2-31. "KNOW YE NOT?"

"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2).

To deal directly with sin brings certain defeat to the Christian. Satan, sin, self, the world, and the law--all have been fully dealt with by the Lord Jesus on the Cross. Our dealings with these enemies are to be through the finished work of Calvary, hence indirect. This can be wonderful news to us when we have had enough of the struggle and failure of Romans Seven.

"The believer who sees that self is incurably evil ('know'), and that it has been taken into death ('reckon'); who gives self utterly to that death as he sinks before God in dependence and surrender to His working ('yield'); who consents to death with Christ on the Cross as his position, and in faith accepts it as his only deliverance; he alone is prepared to be led by the Holy Spirit into the full enjoyment of the Christ-life. He will learn to understand how completely death makes an end of all self-effort, and now, as he lives in Christ to God, everything henceforth is to be the work of God Himself." -A.M.

"It is not by renunciation, or effort, that we are morally apart from sin and self and the world, but by our death on the Cross with the Lord Jesus Christ."

"Believers today seek the blessing and power of Pentecost apart from a personal crucifixion with Christ, and the result is a counterfeit experience. Calvary is always before Pentecost, historically and experientially. The only way into the riches of the fullness of Christ is through our acceptance of our crucifixion with Him." -L.L.L.

"But God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatian 6:14).

Nothing in the Christian’s life which God causes to occur is ever out of punishment from anger but chastisement for correction. “For they indeed for a few days chastened [us] as seemed [best] to them, but He for [our] profit, that [we] may be partakers of His holiness” (Heb 12:10).

It is an extremely comforting thing to realize God never does anything to His own out of anger, but always out of love. Even when we’ve mistakenly done wrong which may have incurred something undesirable, it doesn’t anger Him, but it can displease Him. Regardless of what occurs in the believer’s life, God causes it to benefit him. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to [His] purpose” (Rom 8:28). -NC

3-1. SOVEREIGN PROVIDENCE

"In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 1:11).

Not only is God our Father not dead, but He is in eternal control of both life and death. He who is our very life is "the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom" (2 Timothy 4:1). The sovereignty of our God is not only universal, but also personal. What a source of heart rest!

"We find in Romans 8:28 a great marvel: All things work together for good to the believing lovers of God. This involves that billion billion control of God's providence--of the most infinitesimal things--to bring them about for 'good' to God's saints.

"When we reflect on the innumerable 'things' about us--forces seen and unseen of the mineral, vegetable, and animal worlds; on man at enmity with God; on Satan, and his principalities and powers, in deadly array; on the uncertainty and even treachery of those near and dear to us, and even of professing Christians, and of our own selves--which we cannot trust for a moment; upon our unredeemed bodies; upon our general complete helplessness in ourselves--then, to have God say, 'All things are working together for your good,'--reveals to us a Divine providence that is absolutely limitless." -W.R.N.

"THERE IS NO LIMIT TO GOD'S FAVOR TOWARD THOSE IN CHRIST." -W.R.N.

"All things are Thy servants" (Psalm 119:91, ASV). (WithChrist.org/mjs)

3-2. REST OF FAITH

"In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God" (Philippians 4:6, ASV).

Faith does not create or produce, but rests and rejoices in what God has already done. His finished work at Calvary was the basis for our birth, and His completed work in our risen Lord Jesus is the source of our growth. "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more [certain], now that we are reconciled, that we shall be saved [daily delivered from sin's dominion] through His [resurrection] life" (Romans 5:10, Amp.).

"A great many people have the faith that seeks, but they have not a faith that rests. The Lord Jesus is here, rest in Him, let the burden go. 'Lord, I trust Thee now; I abide in Thee now. Lord, as I think about my home problems, my business pressures, my personal difficulties in every sphere of life, I bring them all, and give them all to Thee.' And believe that He keeps you. I am sure this rest of faith is the center of all activity.

"You cannot work without friction until you have this rest of faith--complete dependence not only on what the Lord has done, but on what He is to you this very moment. Rest in Him. 'God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye always [not sometimes] having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work' (2 Corinthians 9:8)." -E.H.

"And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus"(Philippians 4:7, ASV).

3-3. BORN TO GROW

"Feed the flock of God which is among you" (1 Peter 5:2).

It should grieve us to realize how many abandoned babes in Christ there are--spiritual orphans. In these days of spiritual dearth there is an ever-increasing need for the ministry of nurturing new believers, that they may be "rooted and built up in Him, and established" (Colossians 2:7). "The greatest proof of your love for Christ is that you care for those who belong to Him; 'if you love Me, feed My sheep'." -J.B.S.

"Let us not feel that our task is done with the rebirth of a soul. The great burden of the Christian ministry should be that Christ may be formed in men, and that they, in turn, may be living witnesses to others. Notice Peter's words: But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people.' But for what purpose has all this been accomplished? He goes on to say, ' . . . that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light' (1 Peter 2:9). 'But ye are...that ye should.' We believe in Christ's power and desire to win others, but for what? The whole purpose of salvation is that men and women may grow in the deeper stable characteristics of the Christian life--that they might be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ." -G.D.

"The Christian life is not merely a converted life nor even a consecrated life, but it is the Christ-life. It is the consuming desire of the Lord Jesus to reincarnate Himself in the believer." -R.P.

"Neither as being Lord over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock" (1 Peter 5:3).

3-4. DOCTRINAL--EXPERIENTIAL

"Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you" (Romans 6:17).

The only true, consistent, and Christ-honoring experience is that which emerges from clear-cut faith in the explicit facts of the Word. Sound doctrine is the one basis for a mature walk and effective service. "Thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus

Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine" (1 Timothy 4:6).

"We must remember that our death to sin was once for all accomplished at the Cross. There the believer shared the death of the Lord Jesus; for when he became a believer, the life he received was life in Christ, that is, life out of death, resurrection life, 'newness of life'; and the relation to sin and the law which Christ had, became those of the believer! Our experience of it all is simply the entering by faith into what has already happened at the Cross.

"God now commands each of us to reckon ourselves as having died with Christ to sin--and therefore as now dead unto sin; and as having risen with Christ, and therefore now alive to God (Romans 6:11). Now it is always on the basis of what God has done that He asks us to reckon, to appropriate. God makes the facts and tells us to take the attitude that befits these facts; and when we obey, He increasingly works our experiential victory in and through us." -W.R.N.

"Give attendance . . . to doctrine" (1 Timothy 4:13).

3-5. SUBSTITUTE--REPRESENTATIVE

"Crucified with Him" (Romans 6:6).

Often when a believer finally sees his identification with the Lord Jesus in His death and resurrection, as set forth in Romans Six, he will then seek to experience it by self-effort. The net result: Romans Seven!

"As our Substitute He went to the Cross alone, without us, to pay the penalty of our sins; as our Representative He took us with Him to the Cross, and there, in the sight of God, we all died together with the Lord Jesus. We may be forgiven because He died in our stead; we may be delivered because we died with Him.

"God's way of deliverance for us, a race of hopeless incurables, is to put us away in the Cross of His Son, and then to make a new beginning by re-creating us in union with Him, the Risen, Living One. It is the Holy Spirit who will make these great facts real and true in our experience as we depend upon Him; and so the plague of our hearts will be stayed, and we shall go on to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ." -J.C.M.

"The Holy Spirit so unites us to Christ that Christian experience becomes a reproduction in us of the essential facts of Christ's fourfold revelation He died unto sin: with Him we died (Colossians 2:20). He arose: with Him we are risen (Colossians 3:1). He is in heaven: our life is hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). He will appear again: with Him we shall appear in glory (Colossians 3:4)." -N.B.H.

"Risen with Christ" (Colossians 3:1).

3-6. RESPONSIBILITY

"These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace" (John 16:33).

There are far too many irresponsible believers. At the same time, there are far too many over-responsible believers who are seeking to carry out the Lord's responsibilities. Our primary concern is to trust Him, and rest in Him, while 'it is God who confirms and makes us steadfast and establishes us...in Christ'" (2 Corinthians 1:21, Amp.).

"The good fight is the fight of faith. Nothing is easier than to step out of faith into feeling, or sight. But then it is failure, and no longer a fight of faith. When we abide in the Lord Jesus, the force of the assault is borne by Him. He takes the strain and the burden; whilst the believer passes into His triumphs, and is kept in perfect peace through it all.

"The believer then understands the meaning of Asa's words: 'Lord, it is nothing with Thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power....O Lord, Thou art our God; let not man prevail against Thee...' (2 Chronicles 14:11). Against us? No; against Thee! Why? Because the battle is the Lord's! How often we have looked at the battle as ours and have asked that man shall not prevail against us. But perhaps you are not wholly on the Lord's side; and this may be the secret of your failure. If you want continuous victory, you must be on the side of Him who knows no defeat. The question is not whether the Lord is on your side, but whether you are on the Lord's side." -C.A.F.

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee" (Isaiah 26:3).

3-7. IMITATING IS IMITATION

"For to me to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:2l).

Once we learn the truth of our union with the Lord Jesus, and of the Holy Spirit's indwelling, any attempt to imitate Christ will be seen for what it is: unscriptural, and futile.

"Our Father is going to teach us, mainly through personal failure, that the life we live is the life of our Lord Jesus alone. The Christian life is not our living a life like Christ, or our trying to be Christ-like, nor is it Christ giving us the power to live a life like His; but it is Christ Himself living His own life through us; 'no longer I, but Christ.'"

"The end of Christ's incarnation, death and resurrection was to prepare and form an holy nature and frame for us in Himself, to be communicated to us by union and fellowship with Him; and not to be able to produce in ourselves the first originals of such an holy nature by our own endeavors."

"Thc believer's true education is in the growth of Christ within. The Church's real ministry is not multitudinous public services, so-called, but the forming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the lives of His people; the reproduction of Christ; epistles made alive by the Holy Spirit, to be seen and read of all men." -C.A.F.

"There is no answer to infidelity like the life of the Lord Jesus displayed through the Christian. Nothing puts the madness of the infidel, and the folly of the superstitious more to shame and silence than the humble, quiet, devoted walk of a thorough-going, heavenly-minded, and divinely-taught believer."

"But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you" (2 Thessalonians 3:3).

3-8. IN-BORN MINISTRY

"It is not you who chose Me, but it is I who chose you and appointed you that you might go and be fruitful" (John 15:16, Wey.).

We must be born into our ministry, our service; and it must be born in us. Thus it will be a sharing of life, through which others will be born and will "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18).

"Our Father will never put work or service in the place of character; and, if we do that, eternity will reveal that, however much we may have done, we are very small amongst the inhabitants of the Land, whose stature will be measured by 'the measure of Christ.' It would be well if all who contemplate or are engaged in the work of God were governed by this one absolute final law: that, both as to themselves and as to those amongst whom they minister, the ultimate test is--not how much work is done, but how much of Christ is present, or results from the sharing." -T. A-S.

"The Gospel can never be fully preached by the eloquence of the evangelist; it finds its true authority only in the lives of those it has laid hold of. We live in a day when it is easy to evade the Cross worked out in our lives, and in which we are apt to place our confidence in modern methods, and techniques of evangelism. But lacking the solid evidence of godly living and devotion to the Lord Himself, these will become 'a fanfare of trumpets or the crashing of cymbals--nothing more' (1 Corinthians 13:1, Philippians) ." -J.C.M.

"Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen" (Isaiah 43:10).

3-9. PRAYER PERSEVERANCE

"God . . . hath quickened us together with Christ and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:4-6).

What is our attitude concerning our needs in the Christian life and warfare? Are we outside the armory, struggling and pleading for supplies? Or are we inside the arsenal, ready to be fully supplied and armed as our daily needs require? "Be strong in the Lord--be empowered through your union with Him; draw your strength from Him" (Ephesians 6:10, Amp.).

"It has come these days with new light and power that the first thing we have to see to as we draw near to God day by day is that our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. If we listen in the stillness till our hearts begin to respond to what He is thinking and feeling about the matter in question, whether it concerns ourselves or others, we can, from that moment, begin praying downwards from the Throne, instead of praying upwards from ourselves." -L.T.

"We must not think the revelation as to the will of God is an end in itself; it is but the first phase of a prayer ministry. When Daniel had prayed through to an understanding of the ways of the Lord, he then set himself three times a day to persevere in prayer for the fulfillment. His prayer ministry took him into the lion's den, but it also brought him out again, and he was able to see the things through to the glorious end." -H.F.

"Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need"(Hebrews 4:16).

The works of a believer produce only one effect; to manifest and glorify God (Mat 5:16), because it is He who continually causes us “to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13).

Our good works (which are technically His) do not effect God’s blessings to us, nor do our wrong works detract them from us because His blessings are not contingent on our performance, good or bad (unintentional of course—Num 15:28, 30; Heb 10:26), but on Christ’s performance and “The gifts and the calling of God [are] irrevocable” (Rom 11:29 NKJV).

It’s understandable why one would think God requires payment from us for salvation but He didn’t want it to be something we owed Him but desired it to be a gift, not a debt. We respond out of love and not as one who attempts to earn the Gift. It has been well said that “love does not function according to the quality of its object but according to its nature.”

-NC

3-10. REST OF SANCTIFICATION

"According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue" (2 Peter 1:3).

It is necessary for our Father to utilize very firm means in order to separate us from the ingrained idea that sanctification is produced by our work, plus His help.

"A superficial acquaintance with God's plan leads to the view that while justification is God's work, by faith in Christ, sanctification is our work, to be performed under the influence of the gratitude we feel for the deliverance we have experienced and by the aid of the Holy Spirit. But the earnest Christian soon finds how little gratitude can supply the power. When he thinks more prayer will bring it, he finds that, indispensable as prayer is, it is not enough. Often the believer struggles hopelessly for years, until he listens to the teaching of the Spirit, as He glorifies Christ again, and reveals Christ, our Sanctification, to be appropriated by faith alone." -A.M.

"Look not upon a life of holiness as a strain and an effort, but as the natural outgrowth of the life of Christ within you. And let ever again a quiet, hopeful, gladsome faith hold itself assured that all you need for a holy life will most assuredly be given you out of the holiness of the Lord Jesus. Thus will you understand and prove what it is to abide in Christ our Sanctification. -A.M.

"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4).

3-11. BENCH, OR ARENA?

"Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator" (1 Peter 4:19).

Initially, all we are able to trust God for is our justification. During this stage we are usually satisfied to remain spectators in the battle of life. Later, when we know Him better and are thereby able to trust Him more fully, we become willing to let our Father take us down into the arena and make us participators. "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier" (2 Timothy 2:4).

"If you would know victory you must have conflict; it is ridiculous to talk about having a victorious life when you have never been in conflict. You must be prepared to enter the arena with the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and He will give you lessons day by day. No one can enjoy freedom without paying the price, even in the ordinary values of life. If you would know what it is to triumph, you must certainly pass through tribulation. If you want patience, then it is tribulation; if you want victory there must be conflict."

"Does Paul regret the thorn in the flesh that drew forth words that have comforted countless millions? Do the men for whom the winds were contrary wish they had been spared the storm that brought their Lord to them, walking on the sea, and caused Him to speak that immortal 'It is I; be not afraid'?"

"The things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel" (Philippians 1:12).

3-12. NOT PRUNING, BUT DEATH

"For the death which He died He became, once for all, dead in relation to sin; but by the life which He now lives He is alive in relation to God" (Romans 6:10, Wey.).

When we seek to suppress self in one area, it will express itself in another. If we attempt to prune the branches of the old life, we find that its root has thereby been strengthened. The one answer to this enemy, both God's and ours, is the daily crucifixion of the Cross.

"Romans Six is one of the most blessed portions of the New Testament, teaching us that our 'old man,' our old nature that is in us, was actually crucified with Him, so that now we need no longer be in bondage to sin. But remember it is only as the Holy Spirit makes Christ's death a reality within us, that we shall know, not by force of argument or conviction, but in the reality of the power of an endless life, that we are in very deed dead to sin." -A.M.

"Not by a stringent 'cutting off' of exterior things, nor by seeking a mental apprehension of 'death with Christ' in the conscious life, but by a simple reckoning upon His death as yours--shall you experience in the inner depths of your life, servant of God, the divine spiritual reality that 'Christ in you' is in truth your very life, displacing the old life of nature and continually 'making to die' its inclinations and habits"

"In the same way you also must regard yourselves as dead in relation to sin, but as alive in relation to God, because you are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 6:11, Wey.).

The miracles of God are not for the converting of the soul but to lead to conversion. It’s not the miracles which will transform an individual but the One from whom they flow because it’s faith, not proof, which God uses to convert sinners from the error of their ways.

The more physical proof one has of God, the less room remains for faith (John 20:29)and I believe this is why He has not chosen to use works of miracles as He did in the past; so faith can be at its’ strongest, since this is the only life faith will be extant. This doesn’t mean not to request and pray for blessings of which He wishes to bestow in our lives but they’re not to be relied on. We’re to rely on Him. We’re to “walk by faith, not by sight” (2Cr 5:7) and this means not to let what Christ does for us in the physical, but what He does to us in the spiritual, to be what supports and increases our faith (Luke 17:5). It’s not to be what He can do, but who He is.

Jesus answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him” (John 6:26, 27).

Therefore they said to Him, "What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? "But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe” (John 6:30, 36).

Believing is seeing!
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3-13. NOT INFLUENCE, BUT LIFE

"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free" (Romans 8:2).

The more fully the Lord Jesus controls within, the less we will be influenced by externals. The more we are affected by externals, the less freedom He will have within.

"The Lord Jesus' miracles did not have a character changing effect upon the people who saw them or participated in them. They were but for a testimony to who He was. With all His miracles, in the end the principle of unbelief has not been rooted out of a single individual! Though they saw all that He did, the deep-rooted unbelief was untouched. The amazing thing--even with the disciples themselves--was that they were still capable of deep-seated unbelief. 'O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe....' 'He upbraided them with their unbelief....' With all they saw, it did not touch character, it did not touch their nature." -T. A-S.

"As in the apostolic days so now the desire exists for the manifestation of the Spirit in marvelous ways; but a life sober, righteous, holy, lived in the hope of the glory to come, is the more excellent way of the Spirit's manifestation and undeniable proof of His indwelling. The prayer should not be so much for this or that gift, or this or that result, as for Christ Himself to be made manifest to us and through us. The Apostle who was most filled with the Spirit sums all up in that one great word, 'For to me to live is Christ.'" -W.F.E.

"It is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20).

3-14. LIGHT AND SHADOW

"Before I was afflicted l went astray: but now have I kept Thy word" (Psalm 119:67)

The head-knowledge of Spirit-taught study becomes the heart-knowledge of Spirit-led life, via Romans 8:28 and 29. How good it is to have a sovereign Father controlling all!

"You will find that no one learns truth easily. He who built on the rock was not secure merely because he built on the rock; but he also digged deep. What springs up quickly has no root. The more you understand the nature and scope of the Word, the more will you see the demand it makes on you and how unreserved must be your subjection to it; while as you are subject to it, you learn the blessedness and virtues of it.

"The true value of anything is known only when it is wanted. For this reason bright days must be succeeded by dark ones. In the dreary and desolate hour to nature, we begin to know the value of the truth communicated to us in the bright day. The learning is at one time, and the proving at another. In fact, we ought to be prepared for the dark hour; so that, though it be dark, there is something so blessed, so suited, pouring its comfort and sustenance on our souls, that, after all, the dark and dreary hour becomes a more really festive time to the heart, because of the virtues of the truth now made known, than the time of its reception, which was so happy and exhilarating." -J.B.S.

"But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while . . . stablish, strengthen, settle you" (1 Peter 5:10).

3-15. EARTHLY, OR HEAVENLY?

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3).

The New Testament believer's spiritual growth is not based upon Old Testament doctrine. We are not to neglect the Old, but its introduction of the law was designed to lead to the grace of the New. For a believer who is not yet established in the risen Lord Jesus, it is a temptation to go to the promises of the Old Testament for comfort. This may result in some help at times, but also may bring frustration. It is simply not our ground. "So now we serve not under [obedience to] the old code of written regulations, but under [obedience to the promptings] of the Spirit in newness [of life]" (Romans 7:6, Amp.).

"'The Law made nothing perfect' (Hebrews 7:19). It was given to discover sin and imperfection, not to impart holiness or perfection. The Lord Jesus has poured out His blessed Spirit that we believers, while on earth, might walk in that spirit of life and liberty that prevails in heaven where Christ is. God has given unto us His human-divine nature, and put within us His Holy Spirit. Shall we not therefore walk in that liberty in which Christ liveth? For He lives the same life of blessed freedom from bondage, and of joyful service to God, within us by His Spirit, as He does seated in a body, in heaven before God His Father." -W.R.N.

"If I would bring forth fruit and live to God, I must see myself as having died to law. Law is a principle on which we cannot live to God any more than we can be justified."

"For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God" (Galatians 2:19).

3-16. CHRISTIAN CULTURE

"And He shall stand, and shall feed His flock in the strength of Jehovah, in the majesty of the name of Jehovah his God: and they shall abide" (Micah 5:4, ASV).

To an overwhelming degree "we are what we eat--spiritually as well as physically. "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by Thy name, O Lord God of hosts"(Jeremiah 15:16).

"The best merely human literature that was ever written will not feed the new nature. You may bring the noblest thoughts which ever sprang from a human mind, you may couch them in the most fragrant rhetoric that ever distilled the perfume of literature in the book lover's nostrils and you will not quicken a single pulse of the new and spiritual life. Shakespeare may analyze, Milton soar, Bacon lead us step by step up the royal stairway of induction to the throne of logic, yet not a gleam of light or pulse of strength will be added to the Christ within." -I.M.H.

"With God all is uncultured which is not in accord with the likeness of Christ--of Him in whose image man was first created. Christ is the typical Man, and all in our education which is not after the pattern, after His likeness, is uncultured--only a caricature. We have only that degree of culture which results from the measure in which the image of the Lord Jesus Christ has penetrated us."

"But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil" (Hebrews 5:14).

Righteousness is said to be fulfilled, not by us but “in us” (Rom 8:4). We must be “made righteous”, for as we know we have no input concerning righteousness, only its output--by the Spirit in His fruit. We never produce righteousness because it cannot originate from us, for Christ “is made unto us . . . righteousness” (1Cr 1:30). This helps us to understand that righteousness, along with justification, is imputed and not imparted.

Realizing it’s all God—through us, allows us to rest in Him, “ceasing from our own works” (Heb 4:10) and yielding (Rom 6:13) to Him to be the input. He must work it into us; “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13).

“Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the LORD of hosts” (Zec 4:6).

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3-17. PAST HISTORY

"For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The Lord Jesus was in our place of death and judgment; we are in His place of life and glory.

Romans Seven describes the experience of the believer who has been shown by the law principle the terrible consequences of his position in Adam. Romans Eight describes the experience of the believer who knows what it is to be"in Christ," and who is being made free experientially from "the law of sin and death" by "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus."

"It is of immense importance for every Christian to know that 'our old man' has been fully judged and ended before God. Not changed or forgiven but utterly condemned in the death of the Lord Jesus. 'God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh' (Romans 8:3). Where sin brought us, love brought the Lord Jesus--even to death; and His death is the end before God of all that we were as children of Adam--men in the flesh.

"On the other hand, we have life in One who is risen from the dead. We did belong to the race of which Adam was head; but the death of Christ is, in God's reckoning, the termination of our history in Adam. A new Head has been provided for us, and we have been transferred by divine grace from Adam to Christ." -C.A.C.

"He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves; but unto Him" (2 Corinthians 5:15).

3-18. COST OF LEADERSHIP

"Love suffereth long, and is kind" (1 Corinthians 13:4).

The price of leadership remains high and hard; it may be cheap and easy for the dictator, for the hireling, but never for the shepherd. The dictator dominates; the hireling flees; but the good shepherd loves his sheep and is loved by them. He lays down his life for the sheep. True spiritual leadership involves this principle: "Death working in me works life in you" (2 Corinthians 4:12, Cony.).

"It is the quality of leaders that they can bear to be sat on, absorb shocks, act as a buffer, bear being much plagued. Moses put up with the complaints and the waywardness and revolt of the people. He pursued a steady course, enduring as seeing Him who is invisible. The wear and tear and the continual friction and trials which come to the servants of God are a great test of character." -F.M.

"Bridge the gaps! A bridge means something--generally a life laid down. The very simplest bridge, a plank thrown across a stream, was once part of a tree standing erect, sapping life from the earth, and beautifying all the area around it. Now it is dead, but perhaps saves other lives; anyway it helps to make others useful, and is content to push others on, unnoticed, unthanked. 'Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not,' just be a bridge. It is so simple. See that others are placed on the right track with God through the Lord Jesus. When they get there, they will not thank you, will never look back probably at the bridge; but the Great Architect will know and love and care." -E.W.

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5).

3-19. EFFORTLESS GRACE

"God . . . called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me" (Galatians 1:15, 16).

Just think! Our Father has placed us in eternal and living union with His Son, that He, not we, may "be." Moreover, He has placed His Holy Spirit eternally within us that He, not we, may "do." Further, He has given us the necessary faith and Scripture that we may rest in this wonderful reality, trusting Him "to will and to do of His good pleasure." This is a far cry from futile struggle and frustrating self-effort!

"Christians in the main groan and strive and struggle largely on the basis of human effort where the grace of God, though acknowledged, is scarcely operative--only to come to grief. Even at their best, they find the purpose of the Lord Jesus remains an ideal infinitely beyond their reach. The trouble lies in the fact that they are proceeding on the wrong basis.

"God does not expect them, as a result of their own endeavors, to be like the Lord Jesus. He expects them to realize the utter impossibility of such a thing (as in Romans Seven, where Paul comes to the end of himself). He expects them to know the Lord Jesus as their very life, disowning any other. He expects them to realize their position of absolute oneness with Christ, for He 'has blessed them with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ' (Ephesians 1:3)." -F.J.H.

"Be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 2:7, ASV).

Before there can be a feeding on the meat of the word (maturing in Christ) there must be a feeding on the milk of the word (babe in Christ). Many have yet to progress beyond infancy due to insufficient establishment in “the principles of the doctrine of Christ” (Heb 6:1). These are the fundamentals or foundation from which we progress towards maturing “to the image of His Son” (Rom 8:29).

We are instructed to “leave the principles” or progress to “go on unto maturity”. One must first be properly established in “the principles” before progressing towards “maturity”. This is why maturity in Christ is uncommonly found among today’s Christian’s and regardless the desire and sincerity, maturity cannot be achieved without prior proper establishment.

A structure remains intact when it is supported by the proper foundation, regardless the situation (Mat 7:250). If we often find more disappointment than encouragement it’s only due to the lack of proper understanding “which be the first principles of the oracles of God”(Heb 5:12).

Only the true “doctrine of Christ” can be built upon and lacking this will only bring repetitious failure. Failure to understand what we are growing by is expected until success is achieved but absence for the desire of the truth has no equal in perpetual failure. We’re to ask God to keep us desirous for His word and only hunger for the truths of the word of God will bring one to where “the Lord give thee understanding in all things” (2 Tim 2:7) and “be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” (Col 1:9).
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3-20. RISEN FARE

"He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna" (Deuteronomy 8:3).

The wilderness wanderers were maintained by manna, but those in Canaan flourished on "the old corn of the land." The carnal Christian exists on the milk of the Word, while the hungry-hearted believer feeds and matures on the meat of the Word.
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The old corn of Canaan typifies what the risen and ascended Lord ministers directly to us now by the Holy Spirit. Those who appropriate their position in Christ feed no longer merely on the manna, which represents Christ as supporting our life while we yet 'know Him not' as regards any intimate fellowship.

"If positional truth, rather than the duties of attainment, were taught first to the saints, much more satisfactory results would follow the ministry of many Christian workers. We should note most carefully that Israel was brought into Canaan, all uncircumcised and unworthy as they were, before they were asked to take the circumcised, separated position as the people of God, or enter upon their warfare.

"So we, as believers, have been already brought by Jesus Christ our Head, in His death and resurrection, into the 'heavenly places,' and to us have been given 'all things that pertain unto life and godliness' (2 Peter 1:3). And it is always on the ground of where we already are, and what we already are, and what we already have, that the Holy Spirit shows us our blessed privileges and responsibilities of 'the calling wherewith we are called.'" -W.R.N.

"And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land" (Joshua 5:12).

3-21. THE CROSS, THEN CONSECRATION

"The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Romans 8:7).

The Cross is the altar upon which God sacrificed His Son. It is upon this same Cross (take up your Cross "daily"), this same altar (the place of death), that I am to be consecrated to God as "a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17). This eventuates in my intelligently yielding myself to Him as one who is "alive from the dead" (Romans 6:13).

"God asks us to present our bodies as living sacrifices to Him (Romans 12:1). Until we have done this, there is nothing else we can do. But notice that this exhortation comes after Romans Six. There is a reason for this order--crucifixion comes before consecration. Uncrucified self refuses to be consecrated (to say nothing of God's refusing to accept it). That is why so many people with all sincerity walk down the aisles again and again, consecrating uncrucified self to God." -H.D.

"We must learn to know Him and to love Him. Then we will not have to struggle to move into consecration. The heart will lead into it. A lover never thinks about giving himself to a loved one. He cannot do otherwise. He loves to do it. Is there not here a key to consecration? Why do we not yield? Because we do not love. Why do we have to fight the battle and vow and groan and struggle? Because we do not know Him." -C.A.C.

"That I may know Him...and the fellowship of His sufferings" (Philippians 3:10).

3-22. DEEPENED CHANNELS

"God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:9).

We want fellowship with the Lord Jesus in His peace and joy, and naturally fear and seek to avoid suffering. However, it is in the fellowship of His sufferings that we partake of His peace and joy.

"The Lord has a wonderful way of bringing us into the fellowship of His sufferings, even when everything outside looks prosperous. Sometimes the most apparently prosperous lives have the deepest sufferings at the back of them. The Lord must one way or another teach us fellowship with suffering, or we cannot be of much use. We dwell much upon the side of being filled with joy, but let us not forget there are broken hearts all round us, and if we are to be channels of divine comfort to them, we must learn something of the fellowship of His sufferings in our own experience."

"We shall err if we think that life in the Sanctuary, hidden with Christ in God, means freedom from suffering, sorrow, and trial. Rather will the soul be strengthened inwardly to be trusted more and more with the 'fellowship of His sufferings, becoming conformed unto His death' (Philippians 3:10)."

"Our Father can advance His children into conformity to the image of His Son, more by suffering in one day, than in many years of ease from trial."

"See how we call those who thus endured happy! You have heard how patiently Job endured and have seen how the Lord finally blessed him, because the Lord is tenderhearted and merciful" (James 5:11 Wms.).

3-23. CALVARY AND PENTECOST

"But now that you have been set free from the tyranny of Sin, and have become the bondservants of God, you have your reward in being made holy" (Romans 6:22, Wey.).

When the believer truly sees Calvary he says, "There, through the work of the Cross, I died with the Lord Jesus unto sin." When the believer truly sees Pentecost he says, "There, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, I was baptized into the risen Lord Jesus." Here are the two mighty pillars of our freedom from the power and domination of sin.

"The believer is to rejoice in the double blessing of Calvary and Pentecost. He is freed from condemnation because of the Blood shed, and he is set free from the law of sin and death by the indwelling Spirit that he received when he came to the Lord Jesus. It is not only that there is no condemnation, but there is liberty.

"'The law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death' (Romans 8:2). '...hath made me free....' Let me walk in it; let me enjoy it, and I am free. I am not struggling to get free; I have been set free in the Spirit, and I am bidden to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made me free (Galatians 5:1). I am not struggling for victory; I am standing in victory. I have not to struggle to get out of the horrible pit. He lifted me out; set my feet on the Rock and established my goings; and He bids me, 'Stand fast in the victory that I have gained for you.' Believe and rejoice in it, and you will know what it is to be free." -G.G.

"Walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Romans 8:4).

Regardless the insignificance something in our life may seem, God already knows all of which we will encounter in our thoughts and all we will do and uses these and everything “for our good” (Rom 8:28), which works towards continually increasing our conformance “to the image of His Son” (v 29).

The more we learn of God’s holiness, the more we learn of the decadence of our old nature which means our knowledge of this decadence will be commensurate with the knowledge of His holiness. The goal of it all is to completely depend on God for everything by avoiding self-dependence for anything. After all, “A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven” (John 3:27).

We must realize holiness, righteousness, justification and sanctification is imputed to us and not imparted and remembering this will keep us “humble” (Jam 4:10; 1Pe 5:6) and “satisfied” (Psa 17:15, 90:14). It bears repeating that we will be disappointed when we confide in the arm of man instead of the arm of God because God never disappoints.
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3-24. PATTERN OF MERCY -mjs / withchrist.org

"That He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory"(Romans 9:23).

Mercifully, day by day, He unfolds before our startled eyes the evil depths of the self-life. It is thus we come to know Him as the "God who is rich in mercy," and ourselves as "vessels of mercy."

"Today sinful men, not angels, are entrusted with the preaching of the Gospel, and before they can be used of God must first of all have plumbed the depths of their own sinfulness, and have, therefore, discovered the heights and glories of God's longsuffering. In this way they can become a pattern of His mercy, by means of which He can demonstrate His grace to others." -J.C.M.

"The power effectively to present Christ as Lord, is by means of revelation deep within us, bringing into being an unshakable knowledge of His authority and might, and making us content to accept our weakness and nothingness in order that we may see the pleasure of the Lord prosper in His hand (Isaiah 53:10)." -J.C.M.

"The more useful anyone is, the more he requires to be brought to an end of himself, and to find that his all is in the Lord Jesus. We find some of His servants deeply chastened at first, in order to prepare them for a useful course; and some after a useful period are brought low and afflicted in order that they might learn how truly and fully our Father is sovereign." -J.B.S.

"From Me is thy fruit found" (Hosea 14:8).

3-26. THE HAND OF GOD

"For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God" (1 Peter 2:19, 20).

When self reacts correctly in a difficult situation, it can only result in the sin of self-righteousness. In order for Christ's righteousness to be manifested, the Holy Spirit must hold self inoperative by means of the Cross.

"Accustom yourself in everything that happens, to recognize the hand of the Father. Before you fix your thoughts on the person who did it, first be still, and remember, God allows me to come into this trouble to see if I shall glorify Him in it. This trial, be it the greatest or least, is allowed of God, and is His will concerning me. Let me first recognize and submit to God's will in it. Then in the rest of soul which this gives, I shall receive wisdom to know how to behave in it. With my eye turned from man to God, suffering wrong is not as hard as it seems.

"The Lord Jesus knew that His Father would care for His rights and honor. But he who lives in the visible, wants his honor to be vindicated at once here below. He who lives in the eternal, and as seeing the Invisible, is satisfied to leave the vindication of his rights and honor in God's hands; he knows that they are safe with Him. Giving one's all into God's keeping brings rest and peace." -A.M.

"When He suffered, He . . . committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously" (1 Peter 2:23)

Concerning that which transpires in our lives, the significant issue isn’t what occurs as it is what we do about it. It’s comforting to realize God knows and already has resolved everything which occurs in the Christian’s life.

Knowing this doesn’t remove the hardness but can enable us to properly “endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Tim 2:3). “For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God” (1 Pet 2:20 NKJV).

Patiently trusting God in the hard times yields the most concerning our “partaking of Christ's sufferings” (1 Pet 4:13) and it’s the only time of “the trying of your faith” (Jam 1:3), which I believe produces the highest worship and honors God the most: “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 1:7).
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3-27. SOFTENING SORROW

"Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us" (2 Corinthians 7:6).

All of us are going to have sorrow, and none of us should miss its spiritual benefits. "Godly sorrow worketh repentance...while the sorrow of the world worketh death" (2 Corinthians 7:10).

"God's purpose is to conform us to the image of the Lord Jesus. God had one Son, without sin, but not without sorrow." -A.S.

"Sorrow reveals unknown depths in the soul, and unknown capabilities of experience and service. God never uses anybody to a large degree, until after He breaks that one. It takes sorrow to widen the soul."

"We cannot do good to others save at a cost to ourselves, and our afflictions are the price we pay for our ability to sympathize. He who would be a helper must first be a sufferer. 'Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God' (2 Corinthians 1:4). We cannot have the highest happiness of life in succoring others without tasting the cup which our Lord Jesus drank. The school of suffering graduates rare scholars."

"Well, it is but a little while and He will appear to answer all inquiries and to wipe away all tears. I would not wish, then, to be of those who had none to wipe away, would you?" -J.H.T.

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes" (Revelation 7:17).

When we understand the known will of God (scripture) we can pray with increased expectations and our prayer life will be effective. James 5:16 writes, “. . . The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” I believe the significance of this passage is on righteousness, not necessarily on effectiveness and fervency because regardless the degree of the latter, there will be no production if the righteousness isn’t in proper prospective. To me, this passage is saying the prayer of the righteous is effectual and fervent.

It’s humbling (Jam 4:10) to understand that we cannot add to anything we have of God because it’s all vicarious. We work from what He has imputed to us, i.e., righteousness, but cannot contribute to that which is vicariously imputed. This means “your good works” (Mat 5:16; 1 Pet 2:12) and “your righteousness” (Mat 5:20; 2 Cor 9:10) is yours, but only vicariously because we are just the vessels it is being done by. We’re not to seek credit in anything, any more than a pen would seek credit for writing. Ours is but to be lovingly grateful for being partakers in it all, because God is doing it all--using us, “the vessels of mercy” (Rom 9:23).

Understanding it’s all God and that it’s not cooperation but co-operation, as in altruism, permits us to expect everything on the basis of what Christ has done and not on what we do. Our good works and righteousness is an effect, not a cause and is used by God to draw (John 6:44) others to Christ because “it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13).

Since our position is now with Christ in Heaven (Eph 2:6) we can pray to God, from Heaven to earth and not from earth to Heaven—looking down, not up!
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3-28. DIRECTED PRAYER

"Be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is" (Ephesians 5:17).

Prayer to God must come from God. There can be no prayer in the full assurance of faith apart from the known will of God in the matter. "The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know His will" (Acts 22:14).

"I do not think that a petition that misses the mind of God will ever be answered (1 John 5:14). Personally, I feel the need of trusting Him to lead me in prayer as well as in other matters. I find it well to preface prayer not only by meditation but by the definite request that I may be directed into the channels of prayer to which the Holy Spirit is beckoning me (Romans 8:26, 27)." -J.O.F.

"When we once have the deep, calm assurance of His will in the matter, we put in our claim, just as a child before his father. A simple request and nothing more. No crying, no beseeching, no wrestling. No second asking, either." -J.O.F.

"The Lord may see it needful, for the trial (development) of faith, to seem for a season not to regard our supplications; yet, if we patiently and believingly continue to wait upon Him, it will be manifest in His own time, and way, that we did not call upon Him in vain." -G.M.

"My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him" (Psalm 62:5).

The suffering, death, resurrection and ascension of our Lord Jesus isn’t what saves us, it only made salvation provisional. It’s our spirit’s suffering, death and resurrection in the Lord that appropriates salvation.

The lost needs deliverance from the curse of sin and the saved needs deliverance from the power of sin! Deliverance, not from the presence of sin but from its ruling power: “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body . . . For sin shall not have dominion over you . . . .” (Rom 6:12, 14).

Our Father has allowed the source of sin (our human nature) to remain but not its ability to cause a believer to "sin willfully" (Heb 10:26; Num 15:25-30). Remorse, confession and a repentant heart abides in the wake of the sins of a true believer because the Holy Spirit makes it his constant desire not to displease God: “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish” (Gal 5:17).

The works of the Christian are non-effectual towards salvation but are fruitful because of salvation. Christ “finished” (John 19:30) the work of salvation on the Cross and therefore needs nothing added, so, we’re admonished to “. . . work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12). This means we’re to work out of, or from, our salvation; neither for its attainment, nor to retain it. One cannot keep himself saved any more then he can save himself because it’s God who will “. . . keep you from falling . . . .” (Jude 1:24).
-NC

3-29. TYRANNY OF SIN

"You were set free from the tyranny of sin" (Romans 6:18, Wey.).

The tyranny of sin over the lost necessitated the death of the Lord Jesus on the Cross. The tyranny of sin over the saved necessitated the death of the believer in the Lord Jesus on that same Cross. The dual truths of Calvary: His death for our sin, as payment; our death with Him unto sin, for deliverance.

"The believer sees that Christ by dying for him has completely delivered him from the penalty of sin. So it is his privilege to see that because he is identified with the Lord Jesus in that death, he is also delivered from sin as a ruling principle. Its power is broken. He is in that sense 'free from sin' (Romans 6:18, 22)." -E.H.

"Through my life-union with Christ in His death and resurrection, I have 'died to sin.' His death to sin is my death to sin. In my very humanity, Christ so took me up with Himself in death that, when He died unto sin, I too was executed and there died to sin's reign and power. Has Christ so dealt with sin that He has exhausted its every claim and dominion? And do I share with Him His death unto sin? With bold and explicit reckoning, then, let me count on my death-resurrection relationship to God through the Lord Jesus. In Christ crucified I have been discharged from sin's domination." -L.E.M.

"When victory does not tend to worship, we and God part company, so to speak, as soon as the victory is achieved. How sad to see victory often leading to mere joy, instead of still greater dependence on, and delight in, God!" -J.N.D.

"But now, being freed from the bondage of sin . . . your fruit is growth in holiness" (Romans 6:22, Cony.).

3-30. PREVIOUSLY PREPARED

"Let the same disposition be in you which was in Christ Jesus." "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh is at rest from sin" (Philippians 2:5, Wey; 1 Peter 4:1m).

Too late! Too late! If we seek to deal with sin by reckoning at the moment it becomes an issue. Our stand and attitude from the beginning of each day is to be a settled matter as we rest in our risen Lord Jesus: the death of the Cross separates me from the enslavement of sin and self, and I continually abide in my new life, Christ Jesus. My life is "hid with Christ in God"(Colossians 3:3).

"The reckoning believer is to meet every proposal of self-gratification armed with the mind to suffer in the flesh. Sin is the gratification of self, but 'he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from the domination of sin.'
"If you allow yourself to entertain a suggestion of self-gratification--if you consider it, and give it a place in your mind--you are defeated. You have laid aside your armor, and will fall an easy prey to the foe. But there will be no response to the suggestion or temptation if you stand armed with the mind to suffer in the flesh. That which is proposed to you is exactly opposite to what you are set for. It is suggested that you should be pleased and gratified in the very thing in which you are fully minded to suffer. You are now in conflict with sin--not going along with it; you suffer in the flesh, and have ceased from the practice of sin." -C.A.C.

"So that he can no longer spend the rest of his natural life living by [his] human appetites and desires but [he lives] for what God wills" (1 Peter 4:2, Amp.).

-M Stanford / WithChrist.org

3-31. NOW NO CONDEMNATION

"Ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God" (Romans 7:4).

Romans Six reveals our position as having died unto the principle of sin; Romans Seven teaches us our position as having died unto the principle of law. Both must be counted upon if we are to abide in Christ, and walk in the Spirit, as set forth in Romans Eight.

"We have to look at ourselves and see how far we are devotedly following the Lord Jesus, with full purpose of heart--how we can say, 'This one thing I do'; but we must take care at the same time not to get into legal bondage by this standard. If I say, 'Here is a rule of conduct: follow it,' this cannot reach the heart, the affections. The ministration of the letter brings only failure, and condemnation; for it prescribes a rule which man, being a sinner, can never follow. It does not change a man; it proves him 'ungodly and without strength.'

"We may turn even Christ into that letter of condemnation; we may take His life, for instance, and make it our law. Nay, we may turn even the love of Christ into our law; we may say, 'He has loved me, and done all this for me, and I ought to love Him, and do so much for Him, in return for this love,' etc. Thus if we turn His love into a rule of life, it becomes the ministration of condemnation."

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (Galatians 5:1).

4-2. CONSTANT CARE

"The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust" (Ruth 2:12).

The Lord Jesus not only died for every sin in our life, but He lives for every second of our life. We cannot rest in Him until we realize that there is never an instant that He is not caring for us. It is as though each of His own were His only one.

"So many saints are disturbed, so many are restless, because they are not living in the knowledge that they are under the care of the Lord; and then there is no power to walk. Why have you so little power in walk or service? It is because you are not yet clear that the Lord is caring for you, that He is in all watchfulness over you, that He has let down the strong pinions of His protecting care till they sweep the ground around you, and, if you are wise, you will creep up close under His wings, into the very down." -J.B.S.

"It belongs to the nature of our pilgrimage and life of faith, that we cannot see the land for which we are bound. If only thou hast bid farewell to thy past, have confidence in thy God; trust Him to bring thee into a better land than the one thou art leaving. Should we find that Divine things do not at present correspond with our hopes, we may be quite sure they will eventually exceed our expectations; we shall realize above all we ask or comprehend." -O.S.

"And a man shall be like an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; like rivers of water in a dry place, like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land" (Isaiah 32:2).

4-3. GROWTH FOR SERVICE

"My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you" (Galatians 4:19).

A ministry of life, whether it be at the kitchen sink, or from the First Church pulpit, must flow from the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. That life must be developed in and shared through the growing believer, by the Holy Spirit. We are to rest in Him for spiritual growth, and He will work through us for spiritual service.
"He, whom the Lord cannot trust with the faithful care of his own vineyard, will not be trusted with the tending of God's Vineyard of living, immortal souls. How shall we face the Owner of the Vineyard, if we have neglected our own lives; if we have not entered into that which God has shown us; if we must say, when He asks us about the lack of fruit and the neglect which is so sadly evident: 'Lord, I was so busy tending Thy Vineyard, that my own vineyard I have not kept' (S.S. 1:6)." -C.H.MacI.

"Our Lord is more concerned for a testimony than for a work. We need to get clear on that. A good deal of confusion comes in when you begin to think of things in the light of a work. When you get a lot of people leaving their employment to go into 'the work,' all kinds of complications arise. It is not that we aren't to serve the Lord, but in the first place it is not the work the Lord is after, it is a testimony, it is a light, a living flame."

"That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God" (Colossians 1:10)

The significance in the lesson learned isn’t as valuable as the process of learning the lesson. Trusting that “all work all things together for good to those who love God” (Rom 8:28), esp. in the hardest of times is more faith building than arriving at the moment of obtaining that which is sought, because it teaches us to know our support is not in the need being fulfilled but in the Fulfiller.

“Jesus answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him” (John 6:26, 27).

Conformation (Rom 8:29) and not confirmation is where the work of the Spirit resides (2 Cor 3:18) and until a mature level in Christ’s image is attained (through accurate bible study) it will be expected of a Christian to seek more in the evidence of the Provider than in trusting Him to provide.
-NC

4-4. INTERNAL PRIORITY

"Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).

Beware! The world, both secular and religious, is seeking to destroy your individuality by conforming you to the mass of faceless ones. But our heritage and destiny in the Lord Jesus Christ is to be conformed to His image--not at the loss of our individual personality, but by the gain of His nature and character. "I in you"; "Christ liveth in me" (John 15:4; Galatians 2:20).

"Something has got to be done in us as well as for us. We want to proceed on the line of having things done for us, heaven intervening for us, our difficulties removed for us, having a straight path made for us. Heaven may be ready to come in, the Lord may be prepared to work for us, but it is not sufficient for Him--and it would not prove good enough for us--if that were all. The very principle of spiritual growth and maturity demands that He keep the objective and the subjective balanced; that is, that something is done in us as well as for us." -T. A-S.

"We are apt to think that if and when the circumstances and conditions of our lives are changed and we are in another position than the one we now occupy, then something will happen, the purpose of God will begin to be fulfilled. But the Lord says, 'No, it is not circumstances, not conditions, at all; it is you.'"

"Being confident of this very thing, that He who hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6). - mjs/withchrist.org

4-6. RELIANCE IN TOTO

"Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace" (2 Thessalonians 2:16).

It has been well said that "it takes a lifetime to learn real dependence upon God, and to accept practically our own inadequacy." We are going to learn this only through experience, and now is the time to settle down to this schooling--a day at a time.

"We are to understand that God loves us, and that He justifies us by the work of His Son. We have no longer conscience of sins before God, because He Himself has taken them away before His eyes; we know that being united to the Lord Jesus Christ, who has fully glorified God in that which concerns our sins, we have been made the righteousness of God in Him. So the heart is free to enjoy His love in the presence of the Father." -J.N.D.

"I no longer attempt to produce that which will satisfy God from myself as originator. I know that even if I try I shall only fail. But I do seek to please God by faith in the activity of Another. The Son of God who indwells me by His Spirit is able and willing to carry out in me 'those things that please Him'; and I count upon Him to do so. Consciously, day by day, I take the attitude that I trust Him to work the will of God in me, and in that attitude I go forward and serve Him. I do not trust myself. 'I live by faith in the Son of God.'" -A.I.K.

"Comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work" (2 Thessalonians 2:17).

4-7. HAND HEWN
"Hearken unto Me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord; look unto the rock from which ye are hewn" (Isaiah 51:1).

If we care for His glory, we will want to serve. If we care for others, we will want to be well prepared for that service. And that care will enable us to hold still and trust Him through all that is entailed in the preparation.

"When a certain breaking down of self takes place in a believer's life, it produces a marked change in him; but afterwards he has to learn it all in detail." -J.N.D.

"This is a fact borne out in the case of every servant of God in history who has really come under the hand of God--that the real values of their lives for all time have been those which correspond to the wine of the grape, the thing trodden out in the winepress, the agony of heart; and you know that it is true in your case that if ever you have had anything at all which you knew to be worthwhile and which has helped someone else, it has been born out of some travail in your own experience."

"If we knew the heart of our Father we would never question any of His dealings with us, nor should we ever desire His hand lifted off us till we had learnt all He would teach us." -E.D.

"Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone" (Ephesians 2:19, 20).

When is victory over a trial present for the Christian? When it transpires? Is it in the midst of the trial or at the beginning? Even if we have yet to realize it, all of our victories are present prior to the beginning of all our trials!

Kicking or screaming, hardly enduring or “patiently enduring” (Heb 6:15; 2 pet 2:20); how we respond to all our trials does not determine their outcome because God has already ensured they will eventuate to our benefit for the purpose of Christ-conformity (Rom 8:28, 29). Our response to all things is not a cause, but an effect which reveals the presence of a cause. “For it is God who works in you (cause) both to will and to do (effect) for His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13).

If the strength of our faith in God is in our power and might (Zec 4:6), our trials will “trouble us” (John 14:1, 27) but God’s blessings will remain ours. The level of our position in Christ, mature or immature, does not determine the Father’s blessings to us because they were all foreordained (1 Pet 1:20) and cannot be withdrawn (Rom 11:29).

It's better to go through a trial with God than to go around one without Him!

We can needlessly labor with besetting weights
And be troubled, harassed and assailed
Or take pleasure in infirmities
Either way you’re in the Lord and will not fail
(Heb 12:1; 2 Cor 2:10; Jude 1:24)
–NC

4-8. TRIUMPH IN TRIAL

"Always guarded by the power of God through faith.... In such a hope keep on rejoicing, although for a little while you must be sorrow-stricken with various trials" (1 Peter 1:5, 6, Wms.).

There are testimonies, and there are testimonies. Some can testify as to how God cleared up adverse circumstances for the victory; but others can testify to the triumph God gave in the midst of difficult circumstances. The essential consideration is that our Father be glorified in all His dealings with and for us. How He brings it all about should be secondary to us.

"If there is a great trial in your life today, do not own it as a defeat, but continue, by faith, to claim the victory through Him who is able to make you more than conqueror, and a glorious triumph will soon be apparent. Let us learn that in all the hard places our Father brings us into, He is making opportunities for us to exercise such faith in Him as will bring about blessed results and greatly glorify His Name."

"God has put you in exactly the right crucible to burn up what He sees needs to be burnt up. Many think 'victory' means getting your circumstances put right. No! true triumph is within--when in the midst of your circumstances the Spirit of God can so energize you and strengthen you in spirit, that you can stand quiet in the thick of it all, and say, 'God is God,' and know that you are held by Him--which is infinitely better than all your trying to hold things steady."

"Therefore, my brethren . . . stand fast in the Lord" (Philippians 4:1). –mjs/withchrist.org

4-9. LlTTLE-KNOWN REQUISITE

"My beloved children, I am again bearing the pangs of travail for you, till Christ be fully formed within you" (Galatians 4:19, Cony.).

It is essential that we "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," for three reasons: (1) that our Father may be glorified; (2) that the Lord Jesus might be manifested in us; (3) that the Holy Spirit might have a suitable instrument through which to win and establish others.

"Paul had one great consuming purpose to be brought to birth by his sufferings for the Galatians, and that was the living expression of the Lord Jesus Christ in them. Nothing less could satisfy God, and nothing less than this should ever satisfy a servant of God. Numbers were still good in Galatia, activities well maintained and zeal unabated, but the Lord Jesus was being crowded out--and that is the greatest tragedy possible." -H.F.

"It is a marvellous grace that we should be conformed to the image of God's Son. I think it is very sad that the highest thought which God has about us, and that which His heart is set on, is that which is least known by Christians; for I know no truth that is so little realized as union with Christ." -J.B.S.

"Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began" (2 Tim. 1:9).
-mjs/withchrist.org

Is our sufficiency resting on experiences, as Israel, esp. in the wilderness, required signs and wonders (1 Cor 1:22) or in the “more sure word of prophecy” (2 Peter 1:19)? Faith constructed by experience can be misleading because it accustoms the believer to that which is by sight (temporal) and not by faith (eternal) (2 Cor 5:7). Faith in God differs from faith about God. Can one know God exists (wilderness Israel) without trusting Him? “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief” (Heb 3:19).

This always eventuates in disappointment because the expectation is not in Christ alone as much as it is in His physical confirmations. Faith and sight teeter in opposition to one another, so when physical evidence is up, faith is down. God uses that which is seen to confirm His existence (Rom 1:19, 20), not to confirm our faith, which requires no physical proof.

Faith is to be our substance (Heb 11:1) before God confirms anything in the physical. I believe proof is being reduced to its minimal form so that faith can be allowed to be at its greatest potential, because this life is the only opportunity for faith to be at its greatest activity. “Hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?” (Rom 8:24)?

We “will come to revelations of the Lord” (2 Cor 12:1) but they will come only through Scripture. It is commonly said that “it is to be Scripture which imparts credence to experiences and not the opposite”, so that faith has room to increase (Luke 17:5).

Let our joy already be sufficed in times of need by knowing “that all things work together for good to those who love God” (Rom 8:28), regardless of our maturity status in Him.
-NC

4-10. TRUTH, THEN EXPERIENCE

"But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18).

The Christian who relies mainly upon "experiences" for growth will manifest little spiritual discernment, dependability or maturity, whereas the believer who relies upon doctrinal truth will be found to manifest these aspects of a healthy walk. If we bypass truth, we fall short of spiritual reality.

"Many people today are seeking for a new religious experience and when the last grows old, they seek to get yet another experience. The actual need of most believers today is not an experience, but a true apprehension of what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on the Cross for us and of our present day union with Him.

"When a person begins to apprehend what it means to be united to the Son of God and what he has through this union, he will at once realize that his spiritual growth depends upon a clear understanding of truth rather than upon an experience. However, those who really appropriate this truth cannot fail to have daily experiences with the Lord." -L.L.L.

"Nowhere in Scripture is it taught that there is a sudden leap to be taken from carnality to spirituality, or from a life of comparative unconcern as to godliness to one of intense devotion to the Lord Jesus. On the contrary, increase in piety is ever presented as a growth, which should be as normal and natural as the orderly progression in human life from infancy to full stature." -H.A.I.

"Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all" (1 Timothy 4:15).
-mjs/withchrist.org

The most effective witness for outreach is one in whom the Lord takes up every place in him so that the work is, not by us in the Lord, but by the Lord in us—everywhere in us. It’s very instructive to know there is no place in us the Lord is not to take up and that it is attained by the law of displacement.

John the Baptists inspiringly stated, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). Similar to as we have two physical eyes we also possess two spiritual “I’s”—the old I and the new I. The Lord does not want to displace you, but your nature. He does not want it to be, all Jesus and none of you, but Jesus and you. God’s desire is to have you in your personhood, plus the new nature!

Notice John did not say, “I must be eliminated”. This does not design the removal of the old nature but its restraint (Gal 5:17), because the Lord continues use the Adamic nature to teach us for our growth in Christ, just as He used it to draw us to Christ. We came to Christ because we were made to realize the seriousness of sin and the more we are shown the depths of its decadency, the more we realize the depths of God’s holiness.

I like what John Gill commentated concerning something Christ said on the Cross; “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Jesus was referring to their ignorance to the fact that they did not realize they were crucifying the Messiah, nor the prophecies concerning Him, nor the evil they were committing in putting Him to death: not that their ignorance excused their sin; nor was it without sin; nor does Christ use it as a plea for pardon, or found His intercession upon it, which is always done upon His own propitiatory sacrifice; but this is mentioned as descriptive of the persons Christ prays for, and points out a branch of His priestly office He exercises, in having compassion on the ignorant, and them that are out of the way. (J. Gill bible commentary)

The issue of sin is not so much the wrongs of people as much as it is their lacking the realization of the seriousness of the wrongs; which comes not by discovery but by revelation--by the Spirit’s enlightenment (John 14:26). One cannot judge, nor expect an unregenerate person to live the Christ-life any more than expecting a pig to stay out of the mud after cleaning it. A sinner is expected to sin willfully just as a pig is expected to willfully return to the mud. If the model is to keep a clean pig, the goal is not in cleaning its body but in addressing its nature.

“Most would say, “The work of the Holy Spirit is to save souls.” Yes, but why? Just to have them saved? No; but in order that the Lord Jesus might have His place. These souls are the residence of Christ. The Spirit may instruct believers and build them up—for what purpose? Just that they should be more mature Christians? Not at all; but so that the Lamb of God shall have a larger place. No matter what the Holy Spirit does, He has one all-inclusive object and end—the glorifying of the Lord Jesus Christ; that is, giving Him place and then filling all things with Him. Do not think of the “being filled with the Spirit”, or the “fullness of the Spirit”, in any other way than this: the Holy Spirit’s filling of all things with the Lord Jesus—He is “all, and in all” (Col 3:11). –MJS/Person To Person/WithChrist.org.

“. . . that in all things He may have the preeminence.” (Col 1:18).
-NC

4-11. INWROUGHT FOR OUTREACH

"Rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving" (Colossians 2:7).

At first our concern is to be used, to serve; but it is our concern. Then He begins to impress His concern upon our hearts, that we be like Him. Finally, it is His concern and ours that others may be reached by Him and established in Him.

"The Holy Spirit indwells us and thereby accomplishes our sanctification--an adjustment of our personal lives to His own person and character, to the dropping away of sin's power over us and the implanting of His Christ-imparting attributes in us. But to what purpose is all of this? For the beautifying of our personal lives? To terminate upon us? Not at all. His work in us is that He may have an instrument adjusted to His use, thus to work through us to the blessing of others. -N.B.H.

"It is not so much a matter of our attainments or full conformity to Christ, but rather our progressive movement towards the final goal. Even if we were perfect in ourselves, that would not make us ministers, for ministry consists in the Spirit's manifesting in our lives something more of Christ that was not there before, and then making it shine out for the blessing and transformation of others." -H.F.

"And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men" (1 Thessalonians 3:12).

4-12. NOT HOW, BUT WHO!

"Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God" (Colossians 3:1).
We never question how He works, once we know Him for who He is. When I gain the treasure of knowing Him, I can well afford to trust Him.

"The heart that is captivated by an object could never be at rest until it was with the one who had won it; for satisfaction you must be where He is. Love really does not think of anyone but its Object until it is quite sure of its place with Him, and then when at rest about itself it studies the mind and heart of the Object.

"I find that Christ loved me, and gave Himself for me when I was in a most unattractive state; but He makes me suitable to Himself, and I am so assured of the permanency of His love and of my association with Him that my heart is free to study Him. The more I am in His company, the more I acquire the tastes and characteristics which answer to His mind."

"There is an amazing effect of beholding the Lord's glory. You may be transformed from some old taste without even feeling it; but you are transformed! and you cannot tell how. It is not the process that occupies you, but you are engrossed with the Lord. We are united to the glorified Lord where He is at home, and, blessed by God, that is our home, our life is there." -J.B.S.

"Your life is hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3).

The Christian life is not living by what Christ can do but by what He has already done. There is nothing we do not already possess in order to ever increasingly be conformed (Rom 8:29--by the Spirit through the Cross) to the Christ-life. “Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly [places] in Christ” (Eph 1:3). Nothing can be added to that which “is finished” (John 19:30) and makes us “complete in God’s will” (Col 4:12).

This first involves realizing we work from and not towards God’s spiritual blessings, by appropriating--through reckoning. Paul’s pressing toward the prize of eternal life (Phil 3:11) was due to already possessing God’s blessings and as the Holy Spirit increases our understanding of the written Word, the presence of all of God’s blessings in our loves will become more evident.

We reckon--by faith, and to reckon on God’s written Word is to be convinced it is always true. I believe the most crucial issue concerning reckoning, faith and God’s written Word is to know that God’s blessings are in our lives “through the faith of the operation of God” (Col 2:12), esp. when at times (some call it a “pause”) our faith may seem weak (2 Cor 12:9, 10).

Regardless whether or not we think we deserve His blessings, He “works all things according to the counsel of His will” (Eph 1:11), not according to the performance of our lives. For Christians this means we do not receive something good because we do good, nor do we receive something bad because we did something bad.

Everything is foreknown by God and is being used to teach us of Himself. A Christian’s desire is always toward pleasing God and therefore, in spite of mistakes, is sowing to the good. The totality or summation of everything a person does is toward good or evil and only “He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God” (3 John 1:11).
-NC

4-13. DUAL RECKONING

"For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9).

"Reckoning" on the work of the Cross is the only relief from the carnal burden of self. Then comes the spiritual burden of Christ--to be more like Him. "Reckoning" is the answer there, too. "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through [in] Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6.11). If we seek to escape the death, we will not experience the life.

"We are not to try to crucify self, but we are to agree (reckon) with what God has said and done. In the lives of most believers self has usurped the place belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a criminal worthy of death, but the trouble is that they do not realize that this self-life has been crucified on the Cross. They do not believe the facts of the Word, and sin therefore reigns in their lives; they live in bondage to sin, praying for deliverance, praying that they may die to sin, but refusing to believe what God says He has already done." -L.L.L.

"The constant tendency is to try to improve the manner of one's life here below by adopting Christian principles, whereas you will never arrive at it unless you start from 'crucified with Christ.' Then it is not thinking of what I am, but of what He is, 'Christ liveth in me.'" -J.B.S.

"And ye are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power" (Colossians 2:10).

-MJS/WithChrist.org

After being saved, the next most significant issue is our worship to God, which involves everything we do (John 4:23, 24) and it is how we glorify Him (Mat 5:16). The next most significant issue after our worship to God is our witness to others. After all, outreach to others is how everyone comes to Christ, by God using those who are His to draw them to Christ, beginning with the twelve.

So, this is a list of three pillars in the faith: personal salvation; worship to God; outreach to others. Is anything missing from the list? What could be your next item? How about personal growth in our salvation? Yes, this concludes the pillars of faith to be four and this last element is as significant as the first because it will determine the effectiveness of the second and third elements.

As we know, God uses His Spirit to conform us to the life of Christ and the Spirit’s primary item of use is the written Word of God. Just as the more Sun we’re exposed to, the more tanned we get; the more Word we’re exposed to, the more Son we get. Concerning God’s word, our primary responsibility is to continue to expose ourselves to it and it is God’s responsibility to cause it to mature us in His Son’s image (Rom 8:29).

“All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim 3:16, 17). “It is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13).

The quickest and most effective growth in the life of Christ involves direct Son-light, which is by the written Word of God because it is the only source unfiltered.
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4-14. APPRECIATION, NOT DEPRECIATION

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly" (Colossians 3:16).

As believers we rejoice in the fact that the Lord Jesus died for us, but few are affected by the fact that He arose for us. Fewer still realize that we died and arose with Him. Learn the facts! There will be continual struggle and failure until we gain adequate understanding of the liberating truth.

"The Lord Jesus on the Cross removed the barriers which separated me from God--my guilt, my sin, the law; and He dealt with my enemies--the world, the flesh, the devil. These six things were dealt with, so that we need no longer be in bondage through fear and that we may come boldly to the throne of grace.

"Have we given a hearty assent to these things which the Lord Jesus did for us? Or have we, as we read the Word, drifted by them, taking it all for granted? Let us lay hold of that for which God has laid hold of us. Let us gird up the loins of our mind and consent to that which He did for us. Let us enter into all that which being united to Christ as our Life means. Let us rejoice in all that was accomplished for us on Calvary." -L.L.L.

"It is necessary that the truth conferred by grace should be known as a possession and the virtue of it apprehended, before there can be any walk in keeping with it. For if there be ignorance or misapprehension, the truer the conscience, the more defective is the practice." -J.B.S.

"Set your affection on things above" (Colossians 3:2)

-MJS/WithChrist.org

The Father in His mercy has been teaching you that there is no solid advancement in growth apart from personal fellowship with Himself. It is not only His infinite love that you need, but it is your own heart-love that He longs for. Think of it, the Creator yearning for the love and companionship of the re-created.

Ponder the infinite pathos of the Lord Jesus’ plea to the Twelve, while many of His disciples were forsaking Him: “Will you also go away?” (John 6:67). Does not your heart all but break as He asks the same of you? Surely your loving response can be no less than that of Peter’s: “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life” (John 6:88). –MJS/Person to Person/withchrist.org

4-15. PURPOSE, PROVISION, PROCESS

"I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory" (Exodus 33:18).

There are three vital factors that will keep us on the path, and in the power, of spiritual growth: (1) study to know that God's purpose in saving us is to conform us to the image of His Son (Romans 8:28, 29); (2) learn to reckon upon the finished work of the Cross as His provision for that purpose (Romans 6:11); (3) yield to the Holy Spirit as He carries out the daily process of that purpose (2 Corinthians 4:11).

"Christ Jesus' earthly life showed the path, His heavenly life gives the power, in which we are to walk. What God hath joined together no man may separate. Whosoever does not stand in the full faith of the Redemption, has not the strength to follow the Example. And whosoever does not seek conformity to the Image as the great purpose of Redemption, cannot fully enter its power. Christ lived on earth that He might show forth the image of God in His life; He lives in heaven that we may show forth the image of God in our lives." -A.M.

"God has but one way of revealing Himself, it is 'Christ in you.' He has no other way of showing Himself to men except as Christ lives in us; not by the Shekinah glory in the temple built with hands of men, but in lives redeemed and freed and cleansed as they walk about in this dark world with Christ living in them." -L.L.L.

"And we all, while with face unveiled we behold in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are ourselves transformed continually into the same likeness; and the glory which shines upon us is reflected by us, even as it proceeds from the Lord, the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18, Cony.).

mjs/withchrist.org

I believe the most applicable word to describe everything in our life as a Christian and our fellowship with God could be “vicarious”, because nothing we do or have (esp. salvation) of God originates from us. Everything which has to do with God in our life precedes forth from the Holy Spirit through our regenerated self--by way of the “new man” because this new nature within us is created after the image of Christ (Col 3:10) and Christ is the image of the Father (2 Cor 4:4; Heb 1:3).

“Yielding ourselves unto God” (Rom 6:13) means presenting our new self to Him, not the old self. When we are discouraged it’s because we’ve yielded our old self, which He cannot use (Rom 8:7). It bears repeating that when we are disappointed it’s because we’ve based our support on human strength (Eph 6:10) and not on God, because He never disappoints.

Therefore, it is a refreshing thing to realize that “he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works” (“own works” which are apart from God--Heb 4:10). It’s God’s works and not ours which “keeps us from falling” (Jude 1:24).
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4-16. HANDICAPPED FOR CHRIST

"My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in [your] weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9).

In self we are crippled; in Christ we conquer. The secret is to face up to the former, and rest in the latter. The disadvantaged believer has all the advantage--he knows it must be "not I, but Christ."

"It is a great step when the believer fully consents to his own weakness, and the abiding consciousness of it, and so works faithfully on, fully assured that his Lord is working through him. He rejoices that the excellence of the power is of God, and not of us. Realizing his oneness with his Lord, he considers no longer his own weakness, but counts on the power of Him of whose hidden working within him is assured.

"It is this secret assurance that gives a brightness to his look, and a gentle firmness to his tone, and a perseverance to all his efforts, which of themselves are great means of influencing those he is seeking to win. He goes forth in the spirit of one to whom victory is assured; for this is the victory that overcometh, even our faith. He no longer counts it humility to say that God cannot bless his unworthy efforts. He claims and expects a blessing, because it is not he, but Christ in him, that worketh. The great secret of abiding in Christ is the deep conviction that we are nothing, and He is everything." -A.M.

"Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God". (2 Corinthians 3:5).
-MJS/withchrist.org

Until we learn to “labor to enter His rest” (Heb 4:11) much of our work will be unnecessary because instead of it being “Not I, but Christ” it will be “Not Christ, but I”. Continuing in our “own works” delays, but not inhibits, God’s work in our life. Our old man-related works are to be shunned in order to yield to God to work through us—“by His Spirit in the inner man” (Eph 3:16). It is the Spirit of God who causes us to avoid many wrongs in our lives which we would otherwise encounter (Gal 5:17).

As God rested from His works of creation (Gen 2:2, 3) and never needing to repeat it, He will progressively reduce in our life works which derive from our "old man" which, by law of displacement, will allow more works which derive from the "new man"--through the Spirit.. “For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His” (Heb 4:10).
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4-17. REST AND RECEIVE

"I long to know Christ and the power which is in His resurrection" (Philippians 3:10, Wey.).

The difficult thing for most hungry-hearted believers is to wait in dependence upon the Lord for everything. Truth is not to be grasped, but received--received by faith, mainly through study. How true this is concerning reckoning! Many seek to reckon before they understand the scriptural facts upon which to count, and that adds up to failure. The secret is to learn the truth of our identification with the Lord Jesus so thoroughly that reckoning and its resultant growth will come as a matter of course, just as in our justification.

"The death of our Lord on the Cross has depths of meaning that can only be plumbed by way of discovered need, but then reveals 'unsearchable riches.' To the believer who still has hopes of 'attaining' in the Christian life, a verse such as Romans 6:11 is a rather meaningless jargon used by those who give messages on the 'deepening of the spiritual life.'

"To the believer who has been taught by the Holy Spirit something of his own utter, inbred sinfulness, it comes as a message from God full of hope and encouragement. He grasps the rescue rope flung to him by the right hand of Omnipotence, and with humble thankfulness sets out to learn how he can reckon himself dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord. When he looks at the Cross he sees there the fact that not only did the Lord Jesus die for him, but that he himself was taken down into His death, in order that the practical reality of His resurrection life might transform him into the divine likeness." -J.C.M.

"For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection" (Romans 6:5).

-MJS/withchrist.org

4-18. ABIDING LIBERATION

"For we preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake" (2 Corinthians 4:5).
Our Father took the old fleshly life into death at the Cross (Romans 6:6). He gave us new spiritual life in Christ at the resurrection (Romans 6:4, 5). As we keep our eyes upon the Cross for the old, and upon the Lord Jesus Christ for the new, all that will remain for others to see will be "not I, but Christ."

"In Romans Seven, the personal pronouns 'I,' 'me,' 'my,' are used 47 times in 18 verses. This is the way in which believers live who do not know or who do not recognize the fact of their union with the Lord Jesus Christ.

"To be occupied with self is to be defeated and to have failure and live in sin; but to be occupied with the Lord Jesus will mean victory. He must be the center, He must be everything to me. In Him is liberation; apart from abiding in Him is defeat and failure. Are you trying to please God, or trusting the One to whom you are united, the One who did 'always the things that are pleasing to Him'?" -L.L.L.

"In our Position (union) in Him we are made manifest to God; we are holy and complete in Him. In our Possession of Him He is manifested to men; He lives out His life through us. As we are accepted in Him, so may He be manifested in us." -N.B.H.

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us" (2 Corinthians 4:7).

Due to the potentially excessive controversy which can be generated concerning Israel and the Church, I chose not to comment but rather suggest a link which I have found to be the most helpful on this issue.
http://withchrist.org/newcovenant.htm. I would gladly welcome any comments or questions concerning this material, but only in the spirit of neighborly love (Eph 4:15). Blessed Be God!
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4-19. LAW OF LIFE

"For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17).
We need not submit to the law, nor do we need to struggle against it. It is now a matter of our standing on heavenly ground in our risen Lord, free from the influence and demands of the entire principle of law. In Christ Jesus we are motivated by a higher law, 'the law of the Spirit of life' (Romans 8:2).

"There is no way of deliverance from the law and its bondage, into that liberty for which Christ set us free except to believe, and to keep reckoning, that we died to the law with Him, and are now risen, and joined to Another, the Risen One--even as Romans 7:4 asserts: 'Ye also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ; that ye should be joined to another, even Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God.'" -W.R.N.

"In man the law and the flesh always go together. The Cross was the end for both in the sight of God. The flesh was judged and condemned there; it was treated as a dead thing before God--dead and buried; and the law which deals with the flesh we are dead to. We have passed out of both; we are not in the flesh (Romans 8:9), and we are not under the law (Gal; 2:19). -W.K.

"But you are not living the life of the flesh, you are living the life of the Spirit, if the [Holy] Spirit of God [really] dwells within you--directs and controls you" (Romans 8:9, Amp.).

MJS/withchrist.org

Previously I posted a thread entitled “That Inadequate Feeling” which I claimed that the Christian will at times feel like there’s something wrong but can’t put a finger on it. I stated that I believe it comes from the still indwelling of our old nature because we cannot still have it and not notice it.

I’ve learned there is such a thing referred to as “the pause” and I also briefly mentioned it in another post but now I would like to expound a little on it. The pause is that time in a Christian’s life that all can seem temporarily neutral, not good or bad, happy or sad, but empty. This is unavoidable as it eventually occurs to all in the Body of Christ and I believe its purpose, as any other thing, is to cause us to learn to not be moved by adversity, regardless the type.

Justice is receiving what we deserve. Mercy is not receiving what we deserve and Grace is receiving what we do not deserve. As we know, the last mentioned here is the crux of it all and the more we center and draw on it, the more we are learning to know God, which develops our desirous love for God into more practical love for Him.

Our Position is our place with Christ where He is and our Condition is Christ’s place in us where we are. In our Position, regardless of what we think, God “Hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:6). In our Condition, regardless of what we feel, Christ’s presence in us eventually overcomes our hardships, “For He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” and “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” Paul concluded, as we should too, “For when I am weak, then am I strong” (Heb 13:5 ;1 Cor 12:9, 10). The weaker we are in ourselves, the stronger He is in us. The more we rely in our Position, the less we’re moved by our Condition.
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4-20. SOLID GOLD TRIALS

"For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God" (2 Corinthians 4:15).

Since He is both my God and my Father, and since all of the hardships He takes me through are specifically designed to conform me to the image of the Lord Jesus, how can I help but trust Him and rejoice in His faithfulness?

"It is well to remember that the deepest and truest spiritual qualities are not learnt or established in us by our happy or enjoyable times, but in the difficult ones! There is nothing wrong in times of great joy and spiritual blessing; in fact we long for more of them, and look back perhaps to some days of much blessing in our lives or in the work of the Lord; but in the securing of Christ in greater measure in our lives, we find that it is by the things which we suffer that we learn most. So let us give thanks for the joyful days, and learn all that the Lord intends by the days of waiting and difficulty." -C.J.B.H.

"Faith asks for no props from the men and things around it; it finds 'all its springs' in God; and hence it is that faith never shines so brightly as when all around is dark. It is when nature's horizon is overcast with the blackest clouds, that faith basks in the sunshine of the divine favor and faithfulness." -C.H.M.

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4:17).

MJS/withchrist.org

4-21. TRINITY-TRAINED

"He comforts us in our every affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction by means of the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted of God" (2 Corinthians 1:4, Wey.).

It is a great comfort to know that everything our Father takes us through--much of which may be hard and heartbreaking--has a dual purpose. That which He utilizes to cause us to grow spiritually is at the same time designed to prepare us for His service. He does nothing in vain; He wastes nothing.

"In the very service itself God makes the servant fit to carry it out. A person is first disciplined for service, and then in the
service he is made fit by it for the character of it. God has not servants ready made. He makes them fit for His own service in connection with the race they have to run. The word 'chasten' is the same as that used in Ephesians with respect to bringing up the children: it is nurture. We attach too much the idea of severity, or retribution, to it." -J.B.S.

"Why does God take some through such deep and trying experiences? Why is it that He does not allow some of His children to have an easy way and to be satisfied and gratified with elementary things? The needs of others--that is why.

"We know quite well if any have been able really to help others, it is because they have gone through deep experience, they have pioneered this way, they have paid a great price for this freedom. It has been costly, but worthwhile if others can be really helped."

"But to God be the thanks who in Christ ever heads our triumphal procession, and by our hands waves in every place that sweet incense, the knowledge of Him" (2 Corinthians 2:14, Wey.).

Why we do what we do is superior to what we do and how we do it. Motive, message and method are involved in all we do, esp. in our outreach which is our ongoing witness and example.

It is a restful thing to know there is nothing required for us to remain saved, for it is retained in the same manner it is given—by Christ. If we feel it is up to us to remain in God’s Grace, we haven’t understood how we have received it. We do not keep God, He keeps us (John 10:29; Rom 8:35, 38, 39), because it is He who drew (John 6:44) us to receive and it is He who “keeps us from falling” (Jude 1:24).

Working to keep our salvation would be the same as working for it because fearing its loss if we think we’re not up to an acceptable performance would mean regaining it upon an acceptable performance.
We work, not for salvation but from or out of it. The design in “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” is modeled to intended "work about your salvation"; employ yourselves in things which accompany salvation (Phil 2:12).

If we do not depend upon the Spirit to work in and by us, we are trusting our treasures to the frailty of self and will gain no ground of spiritual growth. Self does not possess the required ability concerning the things of God because they must be worked into us, “For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil 2:13). We’re working but it’s Him doing the work!
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4-22. GUIDING COMFORTER

"If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under bondage of effort to please God by works of the law" (Galatians 5:18).

The motivating principle of the old life is the law; the motivating principle of the new life is "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus." The one produces "the works of the flesh"; the other, "the fruit of the Spirit."

"To be guided by the Holy Spirit is to be moved through the most delicate relationships the heart can know. The 'bit and bridle' of the law must give way to the glance of the eye of grace (Psalm 32:8, 9). At this point Satan, appearing as 'an angel of light,' will seek to misdirect the believer's life by making use of a morbid conscience, a mistaken impression as to duty, or a lack of understanding as to the exact teaching of God's Word. However, Satan's leadings are to be detected since they are irksome, painful, and disagreeable. The leading of the Holy Spirit is sweet and satisfying to the heart of the one who is yielded to God. We must remember that the will of God is said to be 'good,' 'acceptable,' and 'perfect' (Romans 12:2)." -L.S.C.

"The believer has an all-engaging responsibility of continuing in an attitude of reliance ('by means of the Spirit be walking') upon the Holy Spirit. This is the believer's divinely appointed task and place of cooperation in the mighty undertakings of God. Thus, and only thus, can the Holy Spirit possess and vitalize every human faculty, emotion, and choice." -L.S.C.

"If we are living in the Spirit's power, let our conduct also be governed by the Spirit's power" (Galatians 5:25, Wey.).

MJS/withchrist.org

Everything operates within a principle or law, i.e. law of gravity, law of thermal dynamics, etc. Society must live within “the law” or be punished. Ancient Israel was instructed by God to live within “the Law” which He revealed to them by Moses. Paul said the Gentiles live by “a law which is unto themselves” (Rom 2:14) which was similar to “the things contained in the Law” which “showed the work of the Law written in their hearts” (v 15), because “the matter and substance of the moral law of Moses agrees with the law and light of nature” (John Gill).

The purposes of any law, upper or lower case L is not to make a bad person good but to restrain him. A Christian requires no restraint of any law (Gal 5:23), except “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” because he is no longer restrained by “the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:2). The sole restraint of the Christian is the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:17)!!
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4-23. FULFILLED LAW

"For sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law but under grace" (Romans 6:14)

The believer's attitude toward the law is that it is "holy...and just, and good" (Romans 7:12). He does not belittle it by refusing to be under it; he honors it by acknowledging its fulfillment. "For I, through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God" (Galatians 2:19).

"If I say I am under law, and stop there, I am left in spiritual anarchy. If I say I am under law and under grace, I am in the current Galatian heresy which seeks to combine law and grace. But if I say I am not under the law but under grace, I am giving a biblical and Christian testimony." -C.I.S.

"Our identification with Christ in His death places us in perfect reconciliation to a violated law. God has said, 'The soul that sinneth, it shall die.' The believer has sinned, and has died in Christ's death. The law has said, 'Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.' None have continued in obedience. But Christ has been 'made a curse for us'; for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.' Hence, crucified with Christ, we have been accursed in Him. Not one jot or tittle has then passed away from the law, but all has been fulfilled." -A.J.G.

"If, then, when you died with Christ, you put away the childish lessons of outward things, why, as though you still lived in outward things, do you submit yourselves to decrees?" (Colossians 2:20, Wey.).

MJS/withchrist.org

4-24. MY FATHER CARES!

"I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear" (Job 42:5).

The heart that is hungry to have God's purpose worked out in his life is going to be neither disappointed, nor pampered. When it comes to seeing self for what it is, there can be no pampering; when it comes to seeing the Lord Jesus Christ for who He is, there can be no disappointment.

"Why are the people of God suffering?--that they may be conformed to the image of His Son. Of course, we may not need a world upheaval to do this, but God is going to use all conditions to that end, and, tragically enough, there are multitudes of the Lord's people who do need a world shaking.

"They are so bound up with the externalities of Christianity, with its whole structure and system, that nothing but that which will overthrow, disintegrate, destroy, and raise tremendous questions about the whole business, will bring them to the place where the Spirit of God can begin really to do the work He has come to do in them." -T. A-S.

"Job was a true servant of God; but he needed to learn himself, as we all do. He needed to have the roots of his moral being laid bare in his own sight so that he might really abhor himself, and repent in dust and ashes. And furthermore, he needed a truer and deeper sense of what God was, so that he might trust Him and justify Him under all circumstances." -C.H.M.

"But now mine eye seeth Thee" (Job 42:5).

MJS/withchrist.org

The most significant item on the Christian’s daily to-do-list is the same as that which will be the number one priority in eternity—fellowship with God! Our order of priorities is often misarranged if we have yet to realize our fellowship with God is the main purpose of all that He places in our lives, because this will be our priority in the next and the effectiveness of our outreach to others is determined by the condition of our fellowship with God.

Our union with the Father has been established through His Son and is “irrevocable” (Rom 11:29 NKJ), but the nearness of our fellowship is determined by our maturity in His Son. “Our life is hid with Christ in God” (Col 3:3) and through Christ we are “accepted in the beloved” (Eph 1:6), which means, how near we are to God (Jam 4:8) is commensurate with our level of conformity “to the image of His Son” (Rom 8:29).

It is reassuring to know that we are not to conform ourselves (which is an impossibility regardless the level of desire), because it is written that we are “to be conformed” (Rom 8:29). This means we are growing “up into Him in all things” (Eph 4:15) and that each and every individual Christian, from where his level of maturity stands, is constantly being lovingly conformed by our Father.

This also involves the comforting fact that God is already aware of all our choices in this life, which encourages us to know that our unintentional wrongs and mistakes (which all the wrongs of the true believer are undesirable--Heb 10:26), even those which can result in misfortune and adversity from bad choices, are used in His prearranged plans to “work all things together for good to them that love God” (Rom 8:28).

I love referring to this as “The Magoo Factor” because regardless of our decisions and outcomes, He will “keep us from falling” (Jude 1:24)!
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4-25. FIT FIRST

"And the servant of the Lord must not strive" (2 Timothy 2:24).

Our one responsibility, that of concentrating upon the Lord Jesus, has a three-fold result: (1) fellowship with Him; (2) growth in His image; (3) ministry of life to others.

"The love of the Lord culminates in this, that we should be with Him. He died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him (1 Thessalonians 5:10). I find the one who is set on usefulness (Martha) does not advance like the one set on personal affection to Him (Mary). The Lord give us to be more personally attached to Himself; then we shall be useful according to His good pleasure."

"There is one thing that all can do--be 'meet for the Master's use' (2 Timothy 2:21); and this is the secret of usefulness. Usefulness is not activity; it is not merely being used, but it is fitness, cleanness, preparedness, and separation of heart, singleness of eye, the affections set on things above--all, in fact, that proceeds from the judgment and denial of self, and the manifestation of Christ in the life by faith."

"All my ability to act for the Lord Jesus here depends on my conscious identification with Him where He is, not where He was for me; though as I receive power from Him I walk here even as He walked; His life is manifested in me. -J.B.S.

"But be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient" (2 Timothy 2:24).

MJS/WithChrist.org

To believe in somebody and to just believe about him are prominently distinct issues. We can believe one is capable of performing and be knowledgeable of what he can do and who he is but if this is as far as it goes, this is just belief about him without doubting he’s real. A good example is when God appeared to men (esp. wilderness Israel) in ancient times which confirmed their belief of Him being real but with many, it was not “mixed with faith” (Heb 4:2) because they did not believe in Him.

In other words, many even after seeing, did not trust in God and “with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness” (1 Cor 10:5). James 2:19 writes “Even the demons believe--and tremble!” They believe about God by sight but do not believe in Him by faith or trust.

A great truism is that the unsaved need to come to Christ for deliverance from the guilt of sin and the saved need to know Christ for deliverance from the ruler-ship of sin. The best example is the visit of Jesus to the two sisters Mary and Martha. Mary was concerned more with knowing Jesus than serving Him and He told Martha “Mary has chosen that good part” (Luke 10:38-42).

The more we read, study and share God’s written Word, the more He causes us to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (2 Pet 3:18; Eph 4:13). Our part is to read; His part is to enlighten what we read. I like the analogy of computer programing and operations. As an operator can only utilize the content of the program, God utilizes the input of His Word in us.
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4-26. KNOW TO GROW

"And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3).

The heartbreaking knowledge of self brings a life-giving compensation, which is knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. The needs generated by the realization of the sin of self produce the necessary motivation and hunger which cause us to focus upon the Lord Jesus and become conformed to His image. "And we all, while with face unveiled we behold in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are ourselves transformed continually into the same likeness" (2 Corinthians 3:18, Cony.).

"Many a new believer has obtained relief in his conscience from his sins, because of faith in the Blood of Jesus Christ; that is, he does not see further than Romans 3. He has faith in the work of Christ, but has not yet come in faith to Christ. He is like the woman who touched the hem of His garment, assured of His work but not yet acquainted with Himself." -J.B.S.

"It is one thing to believe on the Lord Jesus, to be born again, to be saved. That is a glorious thing as a beginning, but it alone will not take you right through all you have to meet; and if you are really in the Lord's hands He will see to it that by virtue of need you are drawn into knowing more and more of His Son. It is the normal course of a true, Holy Spirit-governed Christian life that, in order to get through, an increase of Christ, a growing discovery of Christ, is necessary." -T. A-S.

"That I may know Him" (Philippians 3:10).

MJS/WithChrist.org

4-29. LOVING KINDNESS

"Now the God of peace . . . make you perfect [complete, mature] in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ" (Hebrews 13:20, 21).

My life is not only in His hands, but He is my very life. "For by Him were all things created . . . and by Him all things consist" (Colossians 1:16, 17). He controls and maintains the universe, and we can surely depend upon Him to care for us who share His life.

"We are all of us prone to forget the weighty fact that 'God trieth the righteous.' 'He withdraweth not His eyes from the righteous' (Psalm 11:5; Job 36:7). We are in His hands, and under His eye continually. We are the objects of His deep, tender, and unchanging love; but we are also the subjects of His wise moral government. His dealings with us are varied. They are sometimes preventive; sometimes corrective; always instructive.

"We may be bent on some course of our own, the end of which would be moral ruin. He intervenes and withdraws us from our purpose. He dashes to fragments our air-castles, dissipates our golden dreams, and interrupts many a darling scheme on which our hearts were bent, and which would have proved to be certain destruction. 'Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living' (Job 33:29, 30)." -C.H.M.

"Now thanks be unto God, who always causeth us to triumph in Christ" (2 Corinthians 2:14).
MJS/WithChrist.org

4-30. LIBERTY FOR ALL

"If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, do ye subject yourselves to ordinances?" (Colossians 2:20, R.V.).

When it comes to spiritual growth and walk, any help from ourselves is a hindrance to us. The source is wrong. On the death side, we are to receive deliverance from sin's power through the Spirit from the Cross; on the life side, we are to receive growth through the Spirit from the Lord Jesus. It is a matter of receiving, not contributing. We are branches, not vines.

"The old elementary legal rudiments of a legal age are for those 'living in the world' (having an earthly temple and worship). Believers are seated in the heavenlies in Christ, and are spiritual people with a sanctuary in Heaven. 'Touch not,' 'taste not,' 'handle not'; such commandments of men have no value. They perish with the using (Col 2:22).

"'Voluntary humility,' 'neglecting of the body,' 'fasting,' etc., have a show of wisdom. They gratify religious pride and self-righteousness, they 'puff up the fleshly mind,' but they are 'not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.' The flesh is not subdued by fasting, nor pride by whipping, nor worldliness by neglect of the body. These are of 'no avail' though men glory in them. Only the Holy Spirit brings one into liberty--and that via the Cross. 'The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death' (Romans 8:2)." -G.G.

"Stand fast, then, in the freedom which Christ has given us, and turn not back again to entangle yourselves in the yoke of bondage" (Galatians 5:1, Cony.).

mjs/WithChrist.org

4-31. WHY STRUGGLE?

"But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Our Father allows the believer to struggle with self, not for victory, but for defeat. Then the "wretched man" learns to rest in the Victor.

"Once you have begun the Christian walk, and know the blessedness of it, you are not trying to correct yourself, for you know that all has been removed from the eye of God; and you insist on the fact that self has been to the Cross, and that Christ is your life. The old man was crucified, and you cannot reform him; all attempts of amiable people to reform him are only denying the fact that he has been dealt with in judgment. The responsible (law) man is not before God now. It is now the day of grace. Everyone who receives His grace is set free from the domination of the old man. The appeal to the believer now is not to do, but to look." -J.B.S.

"The believer is never told to 'overcome sin,' but to reckon, on the ground of his death with Christ, that he has died to it. On the basis of death, he is told not to 'let' sin reign in his life. It is to be dealt with by an attitude of death, not by 'overcoming.' The believer therefore is not to be spending his whole life in getting victory over sin, but understanding his position as having died unto sin."

"[We] are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18).
mjs/WithChrist.org

“While we were yet sinners” it was all about us making our way to God. Now, being in God, it is all about us drawing close to Him (Psa 73:28; Jam 4:8). Christ’s first descent procured the redemption of our spirit (Gal 3:13); His last descent will procure “the redemption of our body” (Rom 8:23), then we shall finally see the face of “the invisible God” (Col 1:15), who is the Father and “do we with patience wait for it” (Rom 8:24).

I do not believe absence makes the heart grow fonder but that it causes us to be more appreciative of its object. Loving God “with all of our heart” is a constant degree of intensity which never varies, but our gratitude for it will never cease to increase!

Love is at the pinnacle of its gratefulness when in the company of its object, so entering our eternal union with God is only part of grace; the other part is to also be in fellowship with Him, which is where He wants us.

Regardless the level of our understanding in what God has shown us, the believer is unified with Him and He’s causing everything to make us to be “true worshipers” in our fellowship with Him because “the Father is seeking such to worship Him” (John 4:23).
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None But the Hungry Heart #5
What is shared herein is designed to further your acquaintance with the Lord Jesus on high, and to enrich your fellowship with Him and with the Father. Through prayerful meditation in None But the Hungry Heart #5, we trust the Holy Spirit will bring about a strengthening of faith and an upward drawing of heart.

Furthermore, it is hoped that these thoughts may provide you an opportunity to try your "faith wings"--to learn more fully the need to abide above, and thereby walk here below in the "Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:2).

"And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment (discernment); that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God" (Philippians 1:9-11).
-Miles J. Stanford; Sept. 1973

5-1. THE GREATEST

"We love Him, because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19).

We first come to know something of the Lord Jesus' love by what He did for us; but that is only the basis for coming to know His love in what He is to us. The first is known at the Cross, the latter is entered into through personal fellowship with the risen Lord.

"There are three steps in appreciation of His love for us. First, I learn that He loves me so much that He saved me. He is our treasure 'My Beloved is mine' (Song of Solomon 6:3). The second step of affection is the consciousness that He loves me so much that He has a right to me. He would have me for Himself. 'I am my Beloved's' (Song of Solomon 6:3).

"The third step is the consciousness that He loves me so much that He wants my company 'His desire is toward me' (Song of Solomon 7:10). Love's delight is found in the company of its object. May we know in a deeper way, and in a fuller measure, the sweetness of personal intimacy with 'the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me' (Galatians 2:20).

"Much ministry is lost upon us as to any practical result, because we are not prepared to be detached from things here, so as to be simply here for Christ. And the preparation for this is to come personally under the influence of the blessed attractiveness of the Lord Jesus. When we sit under His shadow with great delight, everything else becomes so small, and loses its hold upon our hearts." -C.A.C.

"But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18).
MJS/WithChrist.org

The believer can encounter many learning experiences from Scripture when the understanding of the right insight concerning the theme of Christianity is apprehended. One has said that religion is man reaching to God and Christianity is God reaching to man. I believe the theme of Christianity is well displayed in the following scriptural passage: “Your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col 3:3).

Everything we have of God is hidden from the world, from the natural man who does not see with the eye of spiritual discernment (1 Co 2:14). The method of being “in God” is being "hid with Christ", which also involves His intention of manifesting Himself only to those who are His. This was understood by Judas (not Iscariot) when He asked, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world" (John 14: 21,22)?

The most prepared readiness is to remember to address everything in this life with the life of Christ and not our own, because “Christ is our life” (Col 3:4). This will teach us to realize the immensely significant difference in God’s plans, for us, between an earthly life and a heavenly life.

The earthly life of Adam, even “before sin entered the world” (Rom 5:12), was not a position as elevated as “the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom 8:18), for being with God on the Earth is a lesser position of glory than being in Him in Heaven.

This has been God’s plan in His thoughts of us from eternity past which He has pre-arranged, that we, through “the natural life first, then afterward that which is spiritual” (1 Cor 15:46), would “inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mat 25:34).
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5-2. INITIAL PREPARATION

"Saul armed David with his armor.... And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not tested them" (1 Samuel 17:38, 39).

Years of preparation are worth a moment of truth! Rest assured that once we are developed and trained by the Holy Spirit, the work whereunto He has called us will be ready and waiting (Acts 13:2). "Our Lord must have an instrument which He has formed in the fire and to which He has given peculiar knowledge of Himself."

"The greater the knowledge committed to a servant, the more necessary and important it is that he should be much alone with God about it, in order that he may realize the nature and effect of it on himself before he undertakes to make it known to others.

"It rebukes the haste and readiness with which many now enter the ministry, attempting to impress others with a measure of the truth which they have not proved for themselves. Surely the servant should ever be able to say: 'I believed, and therefore have I spoken' (2 Corinthians 4:13). It is better to lose time as to work in preparation for service than to lose time in repairing one's mistakes in undertaking a work for which one is not yet qualified."

"A servant's discipline must always be in advance of the service prepared for him. He cannot lead beyond the point to which he himself has been led. But when the depth and reality of the truth has been established in his own soul, he is made the channel of it."

"I have found that many a thing which I had presented in an extreme way because I was sure of it, I put forth in a simpler and a more real way when I had touched it in my own experience." -J.B.S.

"That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you" (1 John 1:3).
MJS/WithChrist.org

"If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). Of course, this passage is not Christ instructing us to hate anyone because it would conflict with His “second great command”, to “love one another”.

He is using a hyperbolic expression to intensify the desire of our love for Him compared to our love for self and all others. It intends that to be His, we would need to love Him, even if loving Him required hating family and self, which would never be (hyperbole). Matthew 10:37 clearly delineates this which writes, "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me”.

Both of these passages are followed by, "And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me”. Instead of not preferring people to Christ, this passage is in reference to not yielding to things, trials and hardships which compromises, not our desirous love to Him but our practical love for Him. One may have a desirous love to Christ without an actual practicing love for Him.

The crux of the preceding material focuses on making Christ our object instead of self, which I believe J.B Stoney so aptly commented concerning true devotedness: “When I rest in the Lord Jesus, then I begin to find all my joy and strength in Him, and I occupy myself with Him. This is the first step, or the foundation of true devotedness. I do not become devoted in the true sense until I have found rest in Him. I am, up to this, rather looking to receive from Him, thus, I am more an object to myself; but when I find how fully I am an object to Him, then my heart is at liberty to make Him its object, He having made me His.”
-NC

5-3. APPREHENDED TO APPREHEND

"I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord" (Philippians 3:8).

Positionally, our Father subjected our old nature to the Cross and its resultant death. Experientially, He applies the work of the Cross to our old life, thereby progressively holding it in the grip of that death. He is "unforming" the old nature in death, and conforming the new nature in life.

"Life more abundant requires that what He did for us shall be made good in us. In His Cross He dealt with our sins, and He also dealt with ourselves; but that is something which has to be made good progressively. It is as we ourselves are dealt with in the power of the Cross that the way is made for His life to express itself in ever deepening fullness.

"The fact is that it is the old life which is in the way of the new life and its full expression. It is the natural life which obstructs the course of the divine life. Thus what has been done for us has to be done in us, and as it is done in us that life becomes more than a deposit, more than a simple, though glorious possession; it becomes a deepening, growing power, a fullness of expression." -T. A-S.

"You may have been in the fires and have been having a pretty hard and painful time in your spiritual life, but that only means that God has been preparing you for something more. No, God is not a God who believes in bringing everything to an end. He is always after something more. And if He has to clear the way for something more by devastating methods (Cross), well, that is all right, for it is something more that He is after. There is so much more, far, far transcending all our asking or thinking."

"I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:12).

The believer is always in a life and death situation. The living-dead are fictional but there are those who are the dead-living because as a believer, “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col 3:3) and therefore we, “walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4). Being “dead indeed unto sin” results in being “alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 6:11).

Reckoning ourselves to be “dead indeed unto sin” does not cause us to be dead unto sin. We are dead to sin because we are “alive unto God” and therefore we “reckon” or realize we are dead to sin. In other words, we cannot make ourselves dead to sin; this was Christ’s work on the Cross. All we can do is count is so, that it has been done and know that it is an ongoing crucifixion to our old nature – by the Spirit. This causes us to live in the new life we have in God through Christ.

We count none our victories, esp. that over death, as results of what we do, but what God is always doing. What we do results from what He does; not, what He does results from what we do. He is always the cause and we are the beneficiaries of the effect--life out of death. His best for our worst!
-NC

5-4. FIXED POSITION

"And He said to them all, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me" (Luke 9:23)

True spiritual experience will result from our standing immovable in our position "in Christ." All too often believers allow certain "experiences" to move them from the faith-ground of their objective position, and they are soon adrift on the sea of subjective feelings and unscriptural influences.

"The Christian life is essentially a continuous dying, and a continuous living. Of course, there may come a particular crisis in experience where the Spirit of God brings the soul face to face with a definite issue as to a willingness for the Cross, and a yielding of the life to God. Yes, the first revelation of the secret of victory also may constitute a real crisis in the life of the believer, but that crisis or experience can never, in itself, avail for the future.

"There is a subtle danger in relying upon some isolated experience of 'sanctification,' so-called. The victorious Christian life is a Person, not an experience. Following the crisis, whatever phase or landmark in the life that may represent, there must be the daily reckoning, the moment-by-moment abiding and the control of the Holy Spirit. Whatever may have been our experience of holiness, and the measure of spiritual attainment in the past, we can never get beyond the need of abiding in Christ and the continuous reckoning of faith." -R.W.

"For we, alive though we are, are continually surrendering ourselves to death for the sake of Jesus" (2 Corinthians 4:11, Wey.).
MJS/WithChrist.org

5-5. OLD REJECTED, NEW ACCEPTED

"You were set free from the tyranny of Sin, and became the bondservants of Righteousness" (Romans 6:18 Wey.).

The principle underlying resurrection life is, of all things, death. "For since we have become one with Him by sharing in His death, we shall also be one with Him by sharing in His resurrection. Surrender your very selves to God as living men who have risen from the dead" (Romans 6:5, 13, Wey.). Let the facts of your position overwhelm the feelings of your condition.

"By exercising faith in the Word, apart from any feelings, be 'planted together with Him in the likeness of His death' (Romans 6:5). Only by thus standing in your position will you begin to experience 'the likeness of His resurrection. Reckon on your life-union with Him. Reject the old life on the basis of your death in Christ on the Cross, and count yourself alive in Him until He makes experiential your resurrection position. Do not forget that you must stand firmly upon the specific truths: 'dead indeed unto sin--alive unto God in Christ Jesus' (Romans 6:11).

"The sharing of His life is our blessed experience just in the measure in which we share His death. So many of us are content merely that the Cross should be the power to save us from the penalty of sin, but death was not the end of the manifestation of Christ. It was resurrection, and it is the risen life, shining forth in the believer, that alone can carry out the purpose of God in redemption. The believer, in whose daily attitude the mark of resurrection is seen, becomes what the world is looking for, a convincing witness to the power of the Living Redeemer." -G.W.

"That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection" (Philippians 3:10).
MJS/WithChrist.org

As we encounter the experiential realizations of God’s blessings we are to understand that they come by way of His truths, so, our faith is to be in the truth of the blessing and not in the blessing. The blessings are the effects of our faith in God’s truths and faith in what He has said is to have faith in Himself.

Encountering God’s blessings brings salvation and the joy which comes from all within it, but the primary purpose of salvation isn’t just to be saved but to be in union with God. It’s normal for one young in the Lord to be more caught up with the blessings than the Blesser, as a child’s focus and sustenance is on the parent’s provisions more than parent. But as the child advances, his attention eventually focuses more on the parent as he realizes that his trust is not in the provisions, which are the effects and not the cause of his union with his parent. Faith is the substance of our objective and Christ is our objective! (Heb 11:1)
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“Attainment follows faith in the truth”, not faith in the blessing, which H.F. Witherby aptly explains: ‘We speak of the truths themselves, not of the experiential realization of them. We realize what we believe. Realization is not a stepping-stone to faith. Faith is the foundation of practical realization. Experiential acquaintance with the truth is not the truth itself, thank God! And the truth of God, not our realization of it, is our confidence and rest. Therefore, as our souls, by the ministry of the indwelling Spirit, enter into the truths of our Father respecting our blessing, we begin to experientially enter into the blessing we seek. We obtain by faith, not to faith.’”

5-6. TRANSFERRED AND TRANSFORMED

"If [since] ye, then, be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God" (Colossians 3:1).

The growth truths seem complicated and difficult to understand on first encounter. However, with progress in grace we find them to be as clear and logical as the truth of justification. For both time and eternity, all is summed up in John 17:3: "And this is life eternal. . . [to] know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ." Study on!

"The marvel of divine grace is that not only has everything according to the heart of God been secured for me through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, but that I, a child of Adam, should be, not only in peace with God where I was under His judgment, but that I am transferred from Adam to Christ, and I am to have Christ formed in me now.

"I am born of God--of new and divine origin--a new creation to be here on earth now where I was a child of Adam, in the grace and beauty of Christ, led by His own power to stand for Him; daily more and more 'transformed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord' (2 Corinthians 3:18)."

"I used to study this passage and that passage to obtain guidance and light. I see now that if I were really near Him beholding His glory (2 Corinthians 3:18), I should be transformed, should come from Him so impressed with Himself that His interests would, as it were, naturally control me." -J.B.S.

"When the heart has found its rest and satisfaction in Him, it can turn to Him naturally and continually in every circumstance."

"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth" (Colossians 3:2).
MJS/WithChrist.org

It can be difficult at times to picture ourselves in Heaven, “where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God” (Col 3:1), even though we are presently positioned there, because the Father has “raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:6). As often as we can, we’re to “seek those things which are above” and “Set your mind on things above” (Col 3:1, 2). Doing these things will not affect our position above but our condition below.

It’s encouraging to realize that regardless of our present understanding in all things, our condition cannot affect our position. We can go through with joy and singing or kicking and screaming, but regardless which, we are going through because “He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day” (2 Tim 1:12). What is it that Paul committed to God, but his soul, as Peter wrote, “Commit the keeping of their souls to Him” (1 Pet 4:19). Speaking of keeping, God “is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 1:24).
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5-7. ABIDE ABOVE

"And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6).

The Cross has separated us from the power of sin (Romans 6:11), the old man (Romans 6:6), the world (Galatians 6:14), the law (Romans 7:4), and the devil (Hebrews 2:14). The Spirit has joined us to our risen Lord, and we are "hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3). We are free--to abide above; free--to fellowship with our Father in glory.

"The lack I find in souls is, that while they know that their sins are forgiven, they do not know their new place. What place do you have? Is it earth or heaven? It could not possibly be earth, for the Lord Jesus was rejected from the earth. It has a great moral effect upon a person to be able to say, 'I have a place in heaven; I have no property on earth at all, it is all in heaven.'

"'It is the Lord's property I have on earth, but in heaven I have my own.' In the garden of Eden, man lost his place; the question to him then is, First--Where art thou? then, What hast thou done? Every believer seeks to be clear as to the latter, but very few are clear about the former." -J.B.S.
"Many do not go beyond Christ's resurrection; they do not extend to His ascension. They do not know Him in glory. They are occupied with Him in relation to their own side. He was at my side and glorified God there both in His walk here and in His death; but He is now at His own side, and it is there I intelligently realize the vastness of my life, for He is my life."

"My mind must rise above what I am to what God is; then it is that one is formed by the revelation of what God is. To this we are called." -J.N.D.

"Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:24).
MJS/WithChrist.org

The law of sin and death states that “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Eze 18:4, 20). God first introduced this law, or, principle in Genesis 2:17 when He revealed to Adam His first command just prior to creating Eve.

Before “the elect” are “drawn” (John 6:44) to salvation, they are, by the Father, poised for Christ. After being in God they are positioned in Christ, so, “as He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). There remains nothing for the Christian to obtain (in order to secure his assurance of eternal life) but, to attain, in his earthly walk of (of which the Spirit, and not the believer, has overall control - Gal 5:17) “godliness” which “is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come” (1 Tim 4:8).

Righteousness, justification and esp. holiness are attributes the Christian already possess, so, we work from these elements, not for them, as C.H. Mackintosh explains: “The more we realize the truth that everything has been accomplished on the Cross, for the perfect establishment of our peace in connection with the holiness of God, the more we shall see how futile is every thought about ourselves. A question as to the believer’s peace, is, in reality, a question as to the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you touch one, you touch the other; for ”Christ is our peace.” Our Father’s estimate of Him and of us is the same – “Ye are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power” (Col 2:20). “Wherein He hath made us the accepted in the Beloved” (Eph 1:6).

The believer needs only to understand to appropriate, by reckoning, all that he now possess in Christ because God “hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness” (2 Pet 1:3).
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5-8. POSITION POSSESSED

"The God of peace . . . working in you that which is wellpleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ" (Hebrews 13:20, 21).

Abiding involves a dual choice. We can abide in the old nature and thereby become the victims of the internal civil war as depicted in Romans Seven. Or, we can abide (rest) in the risen Lord Jesus, the Source of our new nature, and thereby become the glad recipients of His life and liberty, as depicted in Romans Eight. "The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2).

"How do we abide? 'Of God are ye in Christ Jesus' (1 Corinthians 1:30). It is all the work of God to place you there, and He has done it. Now stay there! Do not be moved back onto the ground of the old nature. Never look at yourself as though you were not in the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Him and see yourself a new creation in Him. Look at Him as the very source of your Christian life. Abide in Him. Rest in the fact that God has placed you in eternal union with His Son, and let the Holy Spirit take care of His work in you. It is for Him to make good the glorious promise that 'sin shall not have dominion over you' (Romans 6:14)."

"We should be spared years of struggle and failure if we learned at once--as the converts did in the days of Paul--that we ourselves were taken through the death of the Lord Jesus. The past blotted out, the pardoned sinner accounted crucified with the crucified Lord, henceforth joined as a new creation to the risen Lord and now sharing His life (Romans 5:10)."

"The Lord Jesus is all that we need for all that we are."

"Your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3).
MJS/WithChrist.org

The problem is not just sins (effect); it goes deeper than that. It is sin itself (cause). The source of man’s sin is his carnal nature, not the devil. The devil is the originator of the sins of angels but not of the sins of man because man’s sin is internal (self), not external (devil). It’s not as if the Enemy implanted his seed in him, which would lack scriptural support.

Therefore, man is blamed and accountable for himself. This is evidenced by the two companion verses Gen 3:6 and 1 John 2:16: “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food (lust of the flesh), and that it was pleasant to the eyes (lust of the eyes), and a tree to be desired to make one wise (pride of life).

God forgives sinners but not their sins. When God “forgives us our sins” (1 John 1:9), He is forgiving us, but not the sin, because sin has always been inexcusable and condemned; and that, at its source – the old man (Rom 6:6; 8:3).

“So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom 8:8). Many a Christian has still yet to realize what our focus is to be centered on concerning our fellowship with God in this life. Just as the vertical part of the Cross aligns with the Father and us, and the horizontal part aligns with one another, the sacrificial ministry of Jesus joins them at the center and is always, in every issue, the center of focus.

When we rely on self to do the work of God in us, we do not understand that it is “He who works in us” (Phil 2:13), not we. Since the things of God in us must be done by Him, the things of God from us must also be done by Him. Who do you choose to depend on, self or Christ? Whatever we seek to receive our security of assurance from is what we depend on to suffice all our needs. If we feel threatened, it’s because we’ve depended on self-performance and not on Christ’s performance. “It is finished.”

The sooner we are aware of the won battle we are in, the sooner we find that He “will give you rest” (Mat 11:28). When did we win? When we chose to take His yoke upon us (Mat 11:29). If we are “heavy laden” it’s because we have yet to utilize His yoke by “casting all our cares on Him” (1 Pet 5:7), as through His yoke all hardship is transferred. To take on the “yoke” of Christ means you are paired with Him, but it’s not the same type as oxen yoke, where the work is shared. This yoke causes us to rest (Heb 4:10) because Jesus does the work; and the work of Christ can only be done by Christ—through the Spirit, of course.
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5-9. WRONG SOURCE

"Rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:3).

There are two ways in which God reveals to us the true condition of the natural man. The first is via the Word: "In me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing" (Romans 7:18). The second is via experience: years of struggle with the constant sinfulness and failure of that old nature. If we were more willing to face up to the incorrigibility of the Adamic life within, it might not take us so long to be freed from its domination.

"It is quite possible for every one of us to have a perfectly good conscience. A happy state to be in! Have you a good conscience? Are you under accusation, under condemnation? Are you fretting and worrying about the badness of your own heart? That means that you have not the answer of a good conscience to God. What is the matter? You are still looking for something from nature, from the old man. You had better give it up, as that is the only way out; repudiate it.

"Tell yourself and tell the accuser once for all that in you, that is, in your flesh, dwelleth no good thing, and you never expect to find anything. The enemy knows it, and yet he is trying to get you on an impossible quest for something he knows you will never find, and that is how he worries you. Years of it! Then why not come onto the Lord's ground and out-maneuver him? Let us settle it that we can never expect to find any good in our old nature. All our good is in another, even our Lord Jesus. It is'the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus' (Romans 8:2)." -T. A-S.

"Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty with which Christ hath made us free" (Galatians 5:1).
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Our strong-hold is “the new man” or new nature, and I believe this is the medium the Spirit works through to conform us to the life of Christ (it being created after Christ – Col 3:10). Our weak-point is our carnal nature, which I also believe is the only medium through which the Enemy can influence us, and is more of a Trojan-horse than an Achilles-heel, because the Christian has no fatal vulnerabilities (Jude 1:24).

Walking after, or, in the Spirit does not mean to follow but to be in the Spirit, which is related as a control issue, not just instructional. The Spirit who “teaches you of all things” (1 John 2:27) first enlightens us, then controls (conforms) our (Gal 5:17) lives to the things of God.

In this Spirit-Saint relationship we are helpless as to performing the things of God because He is the only one qualified for the work. We cannot “conform” ourselves but are “to be conformed” (Rom 8:29) and “are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor 3:18). In this light we can understand that everything we do, as pertaining to the things of God, is being done by the Spirit using us, not by us using Him. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of hosts” (Zec 4:6).

Our part is but to continually “yield yourselves” (Rom 6:13) to the Spirit and, even in this He controls us to do; as a rescuer must wait for the drowning victim to become helpless, so does the Holy Spirit first reveal the futility in our attempts to yield, or present our carnal nature, instead of our new nature, to God.

The first realization pertaining to the holiness of God is in being knowledgeable of the indwelling enmity (Rom 8:7; 7:17, 20), because the comprehension (never fully) of knowing the holiness of God is commensurate with the level of understanding the depths of the decadency of our carnal nature, as the Spirit progressively reveals to us.

The lesson-learned is in realizing we cannot, within ourselves, address the carnal nature as to its influence on us. This is the Spirit’s continuous work in us through the work of the Cross of Christ; for it is not the old man “was crucified” but, “is crucified” (ongoing – Rom 6:6).
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5-10. "SEARCH ME, O GOD"

"I, the Lord, search the heart" (Jeremiah 17:10).

During the early, carnal years we are afraid to face up to the sinful nature within, not fully realizing that it was dealt with in condemnation to God's full satisfaction at Calvary. When we come to see that all the old nature was taken down into the death of the Cross, and in Christ Jesus we are completely clear of its penalty and power, then it is that we begin to welcome the work of the Cross upon all that of which the Holy Spirit convicts us.

"The natural man cannot bear the thought of being searched by God; he cannot stand to think of being found out in his true condition and character. But to the truly hungry believer it is a positive comfort to be assured that God knows everything about us; He knows the very worst that can be discovered. He has searched out all that we are, and in spite of all He has thoughts of blessing concerning us. There is, therefore, no fear of anything coming to light that might cause Him to change or reverse His thought of blessing and acceptance." -C.A.C.

"Our acceptance with God in Christ is perfect, and therefore unimprovable. It never alters; never varies. And it is very important for us not to mix the acceptance itself with our enjoyment of it. Our acceptance is 'in Christ,' and therefore eternal; the enjoyment is 'by the Spirit,' and therefore (because of the working of the flesh) often hindered." -J.B.S.

"The sense of His goodness removes the guile of heart that seeks to conceal its sin." -J.N.D.

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end" (Jeremiah 29:11).
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Where our dependence is, that’s where our faith rests. The proper placement of our faith brings independence and dependence: The Cross of Christ brings independence from the rule old the “old man” (Rom 6:12, 14); and the Spirit of Christ (Holy Ghost) brings dependence on God in the “new man” (Eph 3:16).

If we are discouraged there are two unnecessary weights (Heb 12:1) at, or in, hand: depending on man; and not depending on God. Is there anything we can do which He has not already done (Eph 1:3; 2 Pet 1:3) that we might remain encouraged? Remember, disappointment means to trust in man and not God for He never disappoints!

Until we learn consistency, it’s acceptable to be occasionally distracted from remembering God is always “for us” (Rom 8:31), that is, we in our new nature; and it helps our memory to realize that this also means God is against us, that is, we in our old nature, but threat not for “the Lord of the harvest” (Mat 9:38; Luke 10:2) has foreseen not to harm you in the new man, during His judgment in this life on the old man (Mat 13:27—30).
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5-11. RELIANT REST

"Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts" (Zechariah 4:6).
Our Father allows us to be independent until by that means we come to know our own weakness and need. "Strength is always the effect of having to do with God in the spirit of dependence."

"Some say, 'I want to feel that I am strong.' What we need is to feel that we are weak; this brings in Omnipotence. We shall have a life of feeling by-and-by in the glory; now we are called upon to lead a life of faith. What believer but knows from the experience of the deceitfulness of his own heart, that, had we power in ourselves instead of in Christ, we should be something. This is what God does not intend."

"The very essence of the condition of a soul in a right state is conscious dependence. Now one may use the fact of completeness in Christ to make one independent. Two things are implied in dependence: first, the sense that we cannot do without God in a single instance; and, secondly, that He is 'for us.' In other words, there is confidence in His love and power on our behalf, as well as the consciousness that without Him we can do nothing." -J.N.D.

"We are to walk humbly and lean ever and only on the mighty arm of the living God. Thus the soul is kept in a well-balanced condition, free from self-confidence and fleshly excitement, on the one hand; and free from gloom and depression, on the other. If we can do nothing, self-confidence is the height of presumption. If God can do everything, despondency is the height of folly."

"But my God shall supply all your need according; to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).
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5-12. TRUSTED TRAINER

"He knoweth the way that I take; when He hath tested me, I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10).

In every field, whether the arts, industry, sports, or the Christian life and service in general, the necessary training goes far deeper and is much more rigorous than the actual performance. "Now, at the time, discipline seems to be a matter not for joy, but for grief; yet it afterwards yields to those who have passed through its training a result full of peace--namely, righteousness" (Hebrews 12:11, Wey.).

"The Father chooses the servant who is suited to carry out His will; but though that servant be endowed by Him with power to do so, yet unless he be controlled and disciplined by the Spirit of God he will continually fall into the devisings of his nature, no matter how godly and divine may be his intent. For we greatly err if we think that having the divine thought is all that is necessary as to our service; we must truly and efficiently be expressive of the thought; and this subjects us, as servants of God, to discipline which we often cannot understand.

"Discipline for known faults or shortcomings we can easily comprehend; but when it is that peculiar order of training which fits a man to be God's instrument and witness, we can no more understand it than the plants of the earth can understand why they must pass through all the vicissitudes of winter in order to bring forth a more abundant harvest." -J.B.S.

"God leaves us in the world that we may learn the sufficiency of His grace in practice, as we know the triumph of it in Christ."

"Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter" (John 13:7).
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5-13. FREE, TO SERVE

"No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier" (2 Timothy 2:4).

God has a unique plan concerning each one of us. The secret of realizing our personal calling is not to look at others, but simply to walk in close fellowship with the Father. "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him" (Psalm 62:5).

"No one Christian has a right to stop on his way for another; he must go forward himself in individual faithfulness. The effort to drag others along with us is in reality but a device of Satan to keep ourselves back. Note Jehovah's word to Jeremiah, 'Let them return unto thee; but return not thou to them' (Jeremiah 15:19). Are any desirous of going forward, let them not stop to carry along with them 'the men of Ephraim.' Far better is it to go on with but a few to follow, than to get numbers with us who are only halfhearted."

"You may say, 'Show me a pattern man.' We all like to copy; but there is no gain in copying. You have to learn the Lord for yourself. All you learn for yourself will remain, and nothing else. Every one has his own history."

"It is plain enough that every believer is called of God to something definite. The real difficulty is to ascertain the specialty, and this I do not think can be discovered but in nearness to the Lord, and when you are interested in His interests. We first learn that He is interested in us, and then we gradually become interested in His interests. It is then you apprehend your mission in life." -J.B.S.

"And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully" (2 Timothy 2:5).
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5-14. FULL PROVISION

"Let him ask in faith and have no doubts; for he who has doubts is like the surge of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed into spray. A person of that sort must not expect to receive anything from the Lord--such a one is a man of two minds, undecided in every step he takes" (James 1:6-8, Wey.).

First, we are to rest in the fact that our Father has made full provision for all our needs; positionally, we are complete in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then it is that we can trust Him daily for His "exceeding abundantly above." "But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19)

"It is true that all God requires of us we lack; but it is also true that all we need He supplies. The believer can give thanks that God has supplied all his need as to standing, and He engages to supply all his need as to walk. But while we see our Father's requirement, and recognize His provision, let us not overlook our responsibility.

"When we fail it is to this our failure may be traced. It is not because the provision has been insufficient, or unavailable, or afar off--but because the channel has been obstructed, the avenues of the soul have been closed, so that the need has remained unsupplied. Our responsibility lies in the exercise of faith." -E.H.

"I will not think of the infinities of my need, except to lead me to the divine simplicity of the infinity of His supply." -H.C.G.M.

"And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us; and if we know that He hear us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him" (1 John 5:14, 15).

5-15. THE FIRST CAUSE

"A man's goings are established of Jehovah; and he delighteth in His way" (Psalm 37:23, ASV.) .

Throughout time and eternity the God of circumstances has every situation planned for our good and for His glory (Romans 8:28, 29). That is all that should matter to us. "Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee" "For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God" (Psalm 76:10; 2 Corinthians 4:15).

"What the other person said or did to you was undoubtedly wrong and cannot be justified. Nor did he do it at God's direction; but God permitted him to do it for some wise reason which will yet prove to have been abundantly worthwhile for you. By the time that action reached you it had become the will of God for you, since to a yielded believer there are no second causes.

"He believes the Psalmist's declaration that every step of his life's pathway has been ordered by the Lord. No trial or affliction can reach you who are abiding in Him, without His permission. You can, therefore, be confident in every circumstance of life, however baffling, that it has been permitted in your own best interest by the wisest and most loving of fathers, who knows our 'load-limit' (1 Corinthians 10:13)." -O.S.

"All that we pass through is that we may get a fresh view of the Lord Jesus, or a deepening of a former one; but often we are so occupied with ourselves and the circumstances, that we fail to 'behold the glory of the Lord.'" -C.T.
"If the external plannings of men or Satan further God's plans, they succeed; if not, they come to nothing." -J.N.D.

"Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand" (Psalm 37:24).
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Keep the First by Keeping the Second!

The strongest love treats each person as if they were the only one in existence - because they are! Each person is the only one in existence like their self, because there is only one of you. We may have similar characters, desires and habits, but each is unique in identity, the same as no two fingerprints are alike; similar but not identical.

This surely is how God’s love is to all and is our goal in His neighborly-love training class. This lesson is reciprocal when we “in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves” (Phil 2:3). A common acronym for “joy” represents Scripture’s order of priority – Jesus, others then you. Love is selfless, but pride is self-first and there is no single individual who does not need to realize the latter and practice the former.

As the result of selflessness can be reciprocal, so is the method in its lesson. We become increasingly selfless when we persevere in the mindset of self-last. It’s not to avoid thinking of self at all, just last. Every time the Spirit causes us (Phil 2:13) to put others before ourselves, we place Christ first.

This is the crux of the “two commands” of Christ (Mat 22:36-40), which are reciprocal, in that we keep the first by keeping the second; “For he that loves not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
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5-16. SELFLESS SERVICE

"In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will!" (Ephesians 1:11).

It is easy to just "let George do it," but it is so unrewarding. There is a Christ-honoring ministry of being and sharing awaiting each believer, and the secret is to let Christ do it!

"Our Father has a different line of things for everyone, and each of us has been sent into this world for some special mission. It is not a question whether it is great or small; it may be only a flower to shed fragrance, though this is really the greatest of all.

"There is no higher service than moral influence, 'thy whole body . . . full of light'; and this, of all the highest moral order, is within the compass of all. 'Christ shall be magnified in my body whether by life or by death' (Philippians 1:20)." -J.B.S.

"A mark of the true servant is that he is consciously nothing. John could speak of himself as only a 'voice,' and a greater than John was consciously 'less than the least of all saints.' The moment we think ourselves to be anything, we are out of the servant's true position and spirit. There is a beautiful contrast between John's account of himself, and the Lord's description of him (John 1:22-27; Luke 7:26-28). The more worthy we are of the Lord's commendation, the less do we think of ourselves." -C.A.C.

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10).
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Our battle of “wrestling” (Eph 6:12) is not a matter of winning or losing the war of sin, for the believer fights an already won war (John 19:30). Our battles involve the issue of our posture in our salvation; “that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day [trialing times]” (v 13). We can go through crawling or standing, but regardless of how we respond to our trials, He’s taking us through; “and having done all, to stand” (v 13). Of course, the goal is to endure the trials (2 Tim 2:3) and not allow them to “trouble” you (John 14:1, 27) and in doing so can teach us to grow in our faith in Christ.

Like the story of the women on a ship at sea in a storm, she became so fearful that she ran to the wheelhouse and asked the captain concerning their seemingly dilemma. The captain pointed out to her the large shaking plank in the port side and said, “If that board falls off, we’re going down.” Then he pointed out the billows of smoke from the boiler stack and said, “If that boiler blows, we’re going up.” Then he finished with, “But unless either one occurs, we’re going through!”

Let it be known that the Enemy will not be allowed to overcome the believer, as evidenced in Job’s case, but beware that the Enemy is allowed to use his primary devices (old self, society in general - 2 Cor 2:11) and can distractingly trouble you, but “He is able to keep you from falling” (Jude 1:24).
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5-17. FRUSTRATED ENEMY

"Then saith Jesus unto him, Begone, Satan" (Matthew 4:10).

There is a great difference between a foe, and; defeated foe. A conquered enemy can be put to valuable use in the hands of the victor, and that is exactly what God is doing with that old serpent. Satan is allowed to sift, and try the believer; he is used of God as a winnowing machine to clear away the chaff in us.

"No power in present things allowed to Satan annuls the will of the invisible God." -W.K.

"The story of Job shows clearly that it is God who sets the limit to the extent of the devil's activities and power. From the human viewpoint the Cross looks like a colossal failure. In it the victory of the power of evil seemed complete. But 'the weakness of God is stronger than men' or the enemy, and by the power of weakness having 'spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it' (Colossians 2:15)." -C.J.M.

"It is inevitable that in a world like this the faith of Christians must be tried. For we are in an enemy's land, and he resents our presence. And we have an enemy within our gates--the old man--that opposes us too. But take heart fellow believer, the trials of your faith will be 'found unto praise, honor and glory at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ' (1 Peter 1:7). The happy outcome is a foregone conclusion. Trials work patience, experience, hope--and these are abiding qualities. Satan, as it were, is God's scavenger, and all he can do is to remove out of your life those things that mar your joy, your growth, and your service."

"For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy [undo] the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8).
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5-19. ABIDING PRAYER

"And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us" (1 John 5:14).

In order for us to pray according to His will, we must first know His will; not only that, but His blessed will must become our will. "If ye abide in Me . . . ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (John 15:7). Prayer is the fellowship of an intimate, living union; as with all of the Christian life, it must be carried on in dependence upon the Holy Spirit. He is known as "the Spirit of grace and of supplications" (Zechariah 12:10).

"If I ask anything of God, and have received His answer, I then act with assurance, with the conviction that I am in the path of His will; I am happy and contented. If I meet with some difficulty, this does not stop me; it is only an obstacle which faith has to surmount.

"But if I have not this certainty before I begin, I am in indecision, I know not what to do. There may be a trial of my faith, or it may be that I ought not to do what I am doing. I am in suspense, and I hesitate; even if I am doing the will of God, I am not sure about it, and I am not happy. I ought therefore to be assured that I am doing His will before I begin to act." -J.N.D.

"All flows from the soul being consciously in the place where it is set, in Christ risen. He can then trust us with the knowledge of His will; He can trust the sons of the family with the family affairs."

"And if we know that He hear us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him" (1 John 5:15).
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5-20. SPIRIT-MOTIVATED SURRENDER

"Keep on seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God (Colossians 3:7, Wms.).

When the Spirit of Christ has the hungry heart prepared, there will be surrender. No struggle; no questions. "We reason when we ought to repose; we doubt when we ought to depend. Confidence in our Father's love is the true corrective in all things.""For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him" (2 Timothy 1:12).

"If a believer surrenders or lays aside anything without an adequate divine motive, he will either secretly hanker after it, and probably long to return to it, or he will take credit to himself for having given it up, and will thus reveal self-righteousness and spiritual pride.

"A certain school of religious teachers make much of 'surrender' as the way to attain blessing, but it ends in self-sufficiency, because the only motive that is presented for it is the acquisition of a better spiritual state, or power for service, or something of that kind. A divine motive and attraction is needed if souls are to be drawn into the race and prepared to surrender in a truly spiritual way, and this divine motive and attraction is our risen Lord in Glory." -C.A.C.

"Communion with the Lord Jesus requires our coming to Him in the Word. Meditating upon His person and His work requires the prayerful study of His Word. Many fail to abide in Him because they habitually fast instead of feast." -J.H.T.

"Lord, Thou wilt ordain peace for us; for Thou also hast wrought all our works in us. O Lord our God, other lords beside Thee have had dominion over us; but by Thee only will we make mention of Thy name" (Isaiah 26:12, 13).

"To know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:19).

Our Father's fullness of supply infinitely exceeds the sum of our needs. Positionally it is so: "For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him." Conditionally it is so: "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Colossians 2:9, 10; Romans 8:32).

"As to the Gospel and the work of the Lord Jesus, I do not find that it is adequately apprehended that the benefit conferred by the Father is far beyond the need of the sinner. You cannot measure the benefit by the need. You may ask, 'Does it not cover the need?' It does; but you get no clue to the benefit from the measure of the need. You cannot find it in your own thoughts or expectations; it cannot be found anywhere save in our Father's heart. It is 'above all that we ask or think. . . . '

"How little, indeed, do we enter into the fullness of the benefits of the Gospel! The elder brother in Luke 15 did not object to his brother being forgiven, but it was unwelcome to him to see the wonderful excess of grace bestowed on him by the Father. 'Thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.' Many have the sense of forgiveness without the knowledge of His abundance." -J.B.S.

"We shall never be able to glorify God, if we only take what we need."

"Now unto Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory" (Ephesians 3:20, 21).

5-23. GOD WILL DO IT

"For it is God who works in you both will and deed" (Philippians 2:13, Cony.)

As we mature we come to see more and more clearly that our Father just as fully controls our lives as He does the universe. As C.A. Fox said, "Climb on, and you will find the correcting, the chastening, the cleansing, the calming of the deep affection of God."

"All the testing and trying is to first deal with, by the Cross, that which can never stand the stress and which must be forever failure to the Lord, and then to develop that which is Christ within us. That is the spiritual life--Christ in us in all His fullness. 'I will make him a pillar.' 'I will write upon him the name of my God.' He is going to do it. All the striving will never bring that end about, but He will do it.

"The great majority of us would say, 'If it all depends on me, then it is a bad lookout!' Well, of course, that is true, but let us look at the blessing of Joseph--'The arms of his hands were made strong, by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob . . . even by the God of thy father' (Genesis 49:24, 25)." -C.O.

"Let a man renounce himself, and see himself as crucified with Christ, and soon another Himself--the Lord Jesus Christ--will take the central place in the heart, and quietly bring all things under His sway."

"It is a great thing to offer the Lord Jesus Christ as the Saviour to sinful man, but it is still greater to express Him in a world where He is rejected." -J.B.S.

"According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3).
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5-24. GRACE CROWN

"The God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect (mature), establish, strengthen, settle you" (1 Peter 5:10).

At first, the old nature hides from us. Then, we try to hide from it. But when we begin to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, we are able to face up to the awful facts concerning the old man and his condemnation at the Cross. As the Holy Spirit reveals the old man (Colossians 3:9), we count upon death; as He reveals the new man (Colossians 3:10), we count upon life (Romans 6:11).

"The believer, at the opening of his course, never knows his own heart; indeed, he could not bear the full knowledge of it; he would be overwhelmed thereby. 'The Lord leads us not by the way of the Philistines lest we should see war, and so be plunged into despair. But He graciously leads us by a circuitous route, in order that our apprehension of His grace may keep pace with our growing self-knowledge." -C.H.M.

"It was not for nothing that God let Satan loose upon His dear servant, Job. God loved Job with a perfect love; a love that could take account of everything, and, looking below the surface, could see the deep moral roots in the heart of His servant--roots which Job had never seen, and, therefore, never judged. What a mercy to have to do with such a God! to be in the hands of One who will spare no pains in order to subdue everything in us which is contrary to Himself, and to bring out in us His own blessed image!"

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you" (1 Peter 5:6, 7).
MJS/WithChrist.org

I wanted to mention, which I think I should have done at the outset of these messages, that those who would like to reply with comments or questions may please feel free to do so and it's also fine if you have no questions or comments! God's blessings to your Families and "Blessed be God"!

5-22. FROM MILK TO MEAT

"By people who live on milk I mean those who are imperfectly acquainted with the teaching concerning righteousness. Such persons are mere babes" (Hebrews 5:13, Wey.).

Promises and blessings have mainly to do with the milk of the Word. In order for a believer to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, he must fellowship with Him in the Word. There is general Bible study, and there is feeding upon the Lord Jesus in the Word of life. The former serves for foundation, the latter is needed for growth.

"People may receive 'blessings' and temporary 'deliverances' in answer to prayer, for God is merciful to His children and His Spirit refreshes and blesses us even apart from the real walk of faith ("real walk" meaning "a mature walk" - comment - NC). But it is of greater benefit finally to us, and much greater glory to God, if we simply accept His Word and learn to walk in the power of it by naked faith; which asks no longer certain ecstasies, but being sure of God's truth because it is His truth, maintains an attitude of faith therein; attitude--a fixed heart.

"Faith, when once we see the truth, consists of a believing attitude of the will toward God. This involves a negative attitude toward all doubt of His promises or anything that would raise a doubt; and it also involves a continued refusal to rest upon appearances or feelings, even though these may come in great abundance. It is God's written Word that supplies strength to the heart of faith." -W.R.N.

"It is an easy thing to set sail and get fairly out into the ocean; but when many days have passed and no land is in sight, one is apt to weary. If the heart is not fully occupied with the Lord in the Word, something is taken on board to fill up the void."

"Nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine" (1 Timothy 4:6).
MJS/WithChrist.org

5-25. STAND WHERE YOU ARE!

"God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us . . . hath made us alive together with Christ . . . and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:4-6).

Believers are not occupying their position! At best, most are trying to attain a victorious position by means of prayer, Bible study, commitment, reconsecration, surrender, and so forth. But the answer is simply to abide where we have already been placed--in our risen Lord Jesus Christ. Abide above, and keep looking down!

"Our Father has taken us over Jordan and placed us in Canaan, but the reality of it is never known until by faith we accept the fact on the basis of having died with Christ, and that therefore heaven is our place, and we know it to be our place now; and that this side is not our place, and we know that it is not.

"The more we abide in the Lord on the other side, the less disappointed we will be here, for when we are there we import new joys and new hopes into this old world, from an entirely new one, and we therefore in every way surpass the inhabitants of this lost world."
-J.B.S.
"You must abide in Christ in heaven before you can descend with heavenly ability to act for Him down here. The great secret of all blessing is to come from the Lord. Most Christians go to Him."

"Christian experience is our measure of apprehension of that which is already true of us in the Lord Jesus Christ." -A.J.

"Stand fast in the Lord" (Philippians 4:7).
MJS/WithChrist.org

5-26. "GOOD GROUND"

"Jesus answered and said unto him, Before Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee" (John 1:48).

"And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bore fruit an hundredfold" (Luke 8:8). The more fully and thoroughly hearts are cultivated before conversion the more healthy and fruitful they will be after conversion. Many Christians hurriedly seek to plant the seed in unprepared soil, and then wonder why it is so soon withered, choked, or snatched away. "Good ground are they who. . . having heard the Word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience" (Luke 8:15).

"I believe that a work of God sometimes goes on behind a particular man or family, village or district before the knowledge of the truth ever reaches them. It is a silent, unsuspected work, not in mind and heart, but in the unseen realm behind these. Then, when the light of the Gospel is brought, there is no difficulty, no conflict. The battle has been won.

"It is, then, simply a case of 'stand still and see the salvation of God.' This should give us confidence in praying intelligently for those who are far from Gospel light. The longer the preparation, the deeper the work. The deeper the root, the firmer the plant when once it springs above the ground. I do not believe that any deep work of God takes root without long preparation somewhere." -J.O.F.

"Concentrate your prayers on behalf of some soul or souls and pray for such, night and day, until they come to Christ. Then continue to pray for them until Christ is formed in them!" (Galatians 4:19).

"Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me" (Malachi 3:1).
MJS/WithChrist.org

5-27. SLOW BUT SURE

"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; fret not thyself" (Psalm 37:7).

Our Father moves on the basis of His finished work, therefore hurry is not a factor with Him nor should it be with us. We are to 'walk in the Spirit,' and the blessed Holy Spirit will see to it that we obtain all that our Father has for us, step by step. "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in His way" (Psalm 37:23). Don't be discouraged--Enoch walked with God for three hundred years before he was translated!

"We cannot become spiritual all at once; we must be content to begin as babes. Spiritual maturity and strength do not come by effort but by growth; and growth is the result of being nourished by proper food. But if we do not grow by effort it is important to remember that we do not grow without exercise.

"God begins by giving our hearts a sense of the blessedness of the grace in which He has called us, that we may be awakened and enhungered to pursue the knowledge of all this with purpose of heart and prayerful study." -C.A.C.

"Whatever we do accurately must take time and collectedness of mind, and there is no accuracy in all the world like keeping company with God, and yet nothing so free from bondage or tediousness. By going slow with the Lord we accomplish more than by going with a rush, because what we do is done so much better and does not have to be undone. It is done in a better spirit, with deeper motives, and bears fruit far out in the future, when all mushroom performances have been dissipated forever." -G.B.W.

"Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart" (Psalm 37:4).
MJS/WithChrist.org

I've heard it said that "one can be too heavenly-minded to be of any earthly good". On the other hand, I've also heard it said that "one can be too earthly-minded to be of any heavenly good".

I'm my opinion, one cannot be "too heavenly-minded" because we're to contemplate it as much as lies within us (Col 3:2), and to be truly "heavenly-minded" is to be focused on neighborly-love, “especially unto them who are of the household of faith” (Gal 6:10), and neighborly-love is the primary maturity-gauge (1 John 4:20).

Every growth-hungry Christian is aware that the more we think on the Lord, the more we are comforted. No thought on the heart of a believer can surpass that of the one which is fixed on Him who won it. “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You” (Isa 26:3).

Our Father has so identified us with His Son that They are here with us in our condition, while we are there with Them in our position. So when we pray, instead of going to the Throne, we can come from it. Therefore—“Keep Looking Down”!
-NC

5-28. HEAVEN NOW AND FOREVER

"[God] hath raised us up together; and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6).

In the first stage of our Christian life we seek to bring the Lord Jesus down to our level, for our use; later on we learn to take our position in Him at His level, for His use.

"The desire of many and the tendency of all is to connect the Lord Jesus with ourselves on this earth, instead of accepting that we are in living union with Him in heaven. The Lord give us to apprehend the reality of our true position; that we are outside this scene when we are in our true place. We are thankful that Christ was here, and that He made a pathway through the wilderness, but we have properly to come from Him in glory to learn the path and to find His succor in it."

"If you do not know your union with the Lord Jesus in heaven, you cannot come out in the power of the heavenly Man to act from Him on earth, to be descriptive of Him. You can never be heavenly by effort. Many seek to be heavenly by prayer, reading the Word, devotedness, but the only pathway to it is to be brought by the Holy Spirit to realize union with our risen Lord. You are heavenly by union, by nature. Abide in Him."

"Are we prepared to accept our union with the crucified and risen Lord, not only as the basis of being received by the Father, but also as the way we walk day by day? If this question was honestly faced, and answered affirmatively by the members of our churches, there would be no need to endeavor to whip up a 'revival.' There would be a spontaneous upsurge of life and blessing--the direct work of the Spirit of God Himself." -J.C.M.
"Risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead" (Colossians 2:12).
MJS/WithChrist.org

5-29. CHRISTO-CENTRIC

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5).

Just whose side are we on? The enemy who would occupy us with ourselves, or the Comforter who would occupy us with the risen Lord Jesus? The spirit of death, or the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus? "Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" (Romans 6:16).

"If we have only learned the Lord at our own side, the tendency is to be occupied with ourselves, or to seek to be an object of consideration; whereas if we have been led by the Spirit to His side, His interests and concerns will singularly occupy us."

"The natural inclination is to make oneself the center of everything passing, how it pains or cheers oneself, even musing on oneself as if one were the one solitary object for the sunshine or the cloud to rest on. If I am a hero, or a martyr to myself, I look at and regard divine things as they suit my thinking about myself, and not as answering to what He is thinking of me. I am confining the Lord to myself instead of rising up and seeing myself lost in Him, and then following Him in all the greatness and blessedness of His work and ways down here." -J.B.S.

"We may love as Jonathan, and follow as Ruth, but until we know that we are united to the Lord Jesus Christ in glory, we will not be free enough from our own interests, to take up His."

"[Who] made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant" (Philippians 2:7).
MJS/WithChrist.org

When we are undergoing a trial, it’s helpful to know and remember that its purpose is to “glorify God on this behalf” (1 Pet 4:14, 16).

Here is an encouraging thought from J.B. Stoney: “I come to a wall and I say I would like to have a door here. The Lord says, ‘if I were simply for you I would make one, but I am in you and you must go over the wall.’ That power is the Holy Spirit who dwells in you. When sorrow, or trial, or weakness comes, the thing is to look for grace to be above it. If trial is impending, it is better to be quiet. I have association and fellowship with the Lord Jesus where He is, and I have the power of my Lord where He is not. If you want to be effective, to have practical power while walking down here, it must be by abiding above, by fellowship with the Lord Jesus where He is.”

"My grace is sufficient for you" (2 Cor 12:9). “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col 3:1, 2).

5-30. "LOVE NEVER FAILETH"

"And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:19).

God led the children of Israel into the desert with its thirst, that He might bless them. "For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:4). It is for no less a reason that He takes us into the desert at times. "How shall He not with Him [Christ] also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:2).

"Our Father disciplines us that we may be more fully free from the old nature, and find everything in the Lord Jesus. But He begins the lesson with the assurance, 'I love you perfectly.'

"'I bring you into the desert to learn what you are, and what I am; but it is as those I have brought to Myself!' He gives us a place with the Lord Jesus, but then shows us what He is and what we are. The discipline of the way teaches this; but if He, in His love, strikes the furrows in the heart, it is that He may sow the seed which shall ripen in glory."

"Those who receive deliverance from their troubles never grow like those who get strengthened in the difficulties."

"How slowly one learns that His sympathy is not expressed in removing the affliction but in raising one above it to Himself, so that He becomes so endeared to the heart that He is more an object to the heart than oneself." -J.B.S.

"The hand of God never deals but in concert with His heart of infinite love towards us." -J.N.D.

"Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them who are exercised by it" (Hebrews 12:11).
MJS/WithChrist.org.

5-31. ETERNALLY NIGH

"But now in Christ Jesus ye who once were far off are made near by the blood of Christ" (Ephesians 2:13).

Until we know our position in the risen Lord Jesus, we can never really face up to the sinfulness of our old nature. But "hidden with Christ in God," we can both face up to and face away from the old, "looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter [marg.] of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2).

"God sets me in nearness to Himself in the Lord Jesus; and as I learn my nearness to Him, I am prepared for the exposure of my natural distance from Him, and I am, through grace, morally apart and sheltered from it (Romans 8:9), at the very moment when I see it. The greater my height, the greater the enormity of the depth appears; but I am safe from it. As a consequence I'rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh' (Philippians 3:3)."

"Two things mark spiritual growth; one is a deeper sense of the sinful old nature, the other is a greater longing after the Lord Jesus Christ. The sinfulness is discovered and felt as the power of the Holy Spirit increases; for many a thought and act passes without pain to the conscience where the Lord Jesus is less before the soul, which will be refused and condemned as the knowledge of the Lord increases in spiritual power within." -J.B.S.

"When the Lord Jesus Christ is enjoyed, things unlike Him drop off like fading leaves."

"For the word of God is living, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12).
MJS/WithChrist.org

6-1. TIME TO GROW

"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him" (Psalm 37:7).

Lincoln said that "a short speech requires great preparation; a long speech can be given anytime on short notice. "Now, are we going to "spend our years as a tale that is told" (Psalm 90:9); or are we going to settle down and grow in the image of our eternal Lord?

"In our spiritual experience we often find that not least of our trials is the fact that God seems so slow to respond; sometimes it would appear that He is careless or indifferent--and that just when our needs are most acute. Two of the major elements in the spiritual life and experience of His own are the seemingly slow and hidden ways of God, and the demand for persistent faith in His servants." -T. A-S.

"The work of God in the lives of His people is designed to make them 'partakers of His holiness.' He undertakes their training in His school with the intention that, however difficult in practice the course may be, it will yield 'the peaceable fruit of righteousness' in the lives of those who undergo it.

"This evidently represents His norm--no shortcuts and no exceptions. At least, He did not make an exception of Abraham, or Joseph, or Moses, or any of the great men and women whose names are listed in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. Their training lasted for decades and led them into painful situations and difficult places. But their lives, as a result, were incomparably fruitful." -J.P.

"My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him" (Psalm 62:5).
MJS/WithChrist.org

6-2. CROSS OF LOVE

"Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creation, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:39).

John 3:16: The Saviour laid down His life for His enemies. 1 John 3:16: We are to "lay down our lives for the brethren." The death of the Cross spells love for both friend and enemy.

"If we get a wrong idea about the inward working of the Cross we shall lose our own enjoyment of God's love and fail to manifest that love to others. We have no doubt that, for the sinner, the Cross is the outstanding expression of God's love, but unless we realize that it brings us, as believers, into a very personal experience of being crucified together with Christ, we are apt to lose sight of the love of God.

"We set our teeth, as though making up our minds that from now on everything is going to be grim and harsh. It almost seems that the carnal Christian may be cheerful and happy, but the crucified ones must expect to pass into a gloomier experience. Nothing is farther from the truth. The Cross will always bring us back to the love of God in ever-increasing fullness."

"The challenge of the Cross, the insistence that we have been crucified with Christ, may sometimes appear to be a dark and forbidding message. The Cross is not the end: It is the way through to His end. God is working for something beyond the immediate; He is working towards the glory." -H.F.

"I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end" (Jeremiah 29:11).
MJS/WithChrist.org

6-4. GAZE AND GROW

"Who (Jesus), being the brightness of His (God's) glory, and the express image of His person" (Hebrews 1:3).

Basically, the Bible is the Biography of the Beloved. Its primary object is to provide the Object for our contemplation and conformity.

"Many a Christian has not got beyond this: Christ is a shelter for me, and takes care of me. Souls look for their barrel of meal not to waste, and their cruse of oil not to fail. But is that all? Is it that Christ comes and dwells with me and cares for me?

"I make bold to say it is not. Is it shelter only? No! You are mutilating Christianity if you confine it to that. God says: I have saved you by My own Son, and now another factor must come in; you are to live by the One who has saved you; My purpose is that you are to be conformed to His blessed image."

"There comes a moment when the soul knows union with Christ. Has your soul ever got a glimpse, by the Spirit, of Christ risen? Of 'the mark' of which Paul speaks? It is Christ in heaven; He is my Object!

"Practically it is what souls have lost sight of. They do not look for acquaintance with Christ Risen. The first thing is the education of the Word; the second, Christ Himself must be seen (2 Corinthians 3:18). The Word delights the heart, but till the eye of your spirit has rested on the Person of Christ, you have not the model for the Word to take; there is no formation."

"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2).
WithChrist.org/MJS

6-5. "FREE BORN"

"If God be for us, who can be against us"? (Romans 8:31)

Faith in the facts alone gives the rest of reliance.

"Is there an accuser, a judge, or an executioner, still after us? The accuser may go away rebuked by this, that God has justified us; the judge may go away rebuked by this, that the Lord Jesus has died--has already suffered the judgment, and His work has been accepted to the full in heaven itself; the executioner may go away rebuked by this, that all the malice of earth and hell together shall never drag us away from the firm embrace of our God. And if there be now neither accuser to charge, nor judge to condemn, nor executioner to slay, the court is cleared!" -J.G.B.

"It is a blessed thing to be shown our enemies and told with Gideon, that Jehovah has delivered them into our hands (Josh. 8:7). Our old man has been crucified (Romans 6:6), the world 'overcome,' and its prince 'judged' (John 16:33, 11). If we are walking by faith, as risen with the Lord Jesus Christ, Satan, the world, and the flesh are under our feet." -J.N.D.

"Not a hair of the child of God can fall without God's permission. Satan is but the unintentional instrument to accomplish God's will; he can do no more than he is allowed to do. If trials come as a host against us, we know that the Almighty is between us and them. They will but work out for us His own purpose of love."

"What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us" (Romans 8:35, 37)
WithChrist.org./MJS

6-6. CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE

"If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf" (1 Peter 4:16).
Often the lapidary will polish the jewel with its own dust. Just so our Father makes use of the weak and beggarly element of our nature to produce the mirror-like luster in which His image is finally reflected for all to see. "They shall be Mine. . . in that day when I make up My jewels" (Malachi 3:17).

"Those who know the Lord best are those who have gone the deepest way. Those who go the deep way of trial do so because God puts the premium upon their knowledge of Him. They are the people who are shut up to God. But this knowledge is firstly, constitutional: that is, it is to constitute a certain kind of person and character; and secondly it is vocational: it does not end with the person concerned, but is the essence of service, in time and eternity. God is very practical, and requires that things in His service are never merely theoretical but real and true to life." -T. A-S.

"Our path ought to be the mold, the opportunity, for the expression and virtue of Christ's life. Saints seek to use Him rather in order to get through their circumstances, instead of seeing in the circumstances the mold in which they are to be taught the strength and power of the Lord Jesus. May we grow in Him, knowing Him, not only as helping us through circumstances, but using the circumstances which He puts us through as opportunities for enlarging our souls in Himself."

"But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy" (1 Peter 4:13).
WithChrist.org/MJS

6-7. PROFFERED PROVISION

"We have known and believed the love that God hath to us" (1 John 4:16).
The Spirit convicts us of sins that we may be convinced of God's cleansing. We do not deserve to be forgiven, but the Lord Jesus deserves to be trusted.

"We find the greatest difficulty often in bringing our sorrow to God. How can I do so, some may be saying, as my sorrow is the fruit of my sin? How can I take it to God? If it was suffering for righteousness' sake, then I would, but I am suffering for my sin; and can I, in the integrity of my heart towards God, take my sorrows to Him, knowing I deserve them?

"Yes: the Lord Jesus has been to God about them. This, then, is the ground on which I can go. There has been perfect atonement for all my sins; Christ has been judged for them. Will God judge us both? No; I go to Him on the ground of atonement, and God can justly meet me in all my sorrow, because Christ's work has been so perfectly done." -J.N.D.

"The guilt which the throne detects, the altar removes. If in the light of the throne one object is seen, namely, ruined, guilty, undone self; then, in the light of the altar, one object is seen, namely, a full, precious, all-sufficient Christ. The remedy reaches to the full extent of the ruin, and the same light that reveals the one reveals the other likewise. This gives settled repose to the conscience. God Himself has provided a remedy for all ruin which the light of His throne has revealed."

"If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).
WithChrist.org

6-8. THE WORD'S WORD

"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus" (Hebrews 10:19).

The written Word is meant to reveal the Living Word, not to hide Him. Many know prophecy better than the Prophet. Our Father gave us His written Word that we might know His Son, not only as Saviour but as our very Life. "Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy Word is truth" (John 17:17).

"The knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ is the basis of the believer's life. That is, it underlies our very relationship with God; it underlies all our growth in grace; it underlies every fragment of our service. There is nothing which comes within the compass of the life of the Christian which does not depend upon the knowledge of the Lord Jesus." -T. A-S.

"Heart acquaintance with Christ is the secret of spiritual growth. One may know all the truths of the Bible, and yet be practically ignorant of the person of the Lord Jesus. It is possible to go back into the world with acquaintance with the scriptures, but it is virtually impossible to return thither with the scriptural acquaintance of Christ in the heart."

"The believer should have but one object: knowing Christ has laid hold of him for glory, his heart is running after Him. He is to have no other object, though he may have many things to do. The Lord Jesus is 'in all' believers as the power of life, and He is 'all' as the object of that life. He is 'all and in all' (Colossians 3:11). And, 'all to Him I owe.'"

"Having an high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith" (Hebrews 10:2l, 22).
WithChrist.org

6-9. VICTORIOUS VINEDRESSER

"No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them who are exercised by it" (Hebrews 12:11).

Vision: The Word gives us the true picture of growth. Verification: The Spirit gives us a taste thereof. Vindication: The Lord Jesus, later, gives us maturity.

"A great mystery surrounds the spiritual growth of the hungry-hearted believer. The Spirit gives a foretaste of a deeper life before the believer is led into the fulness of it. Many believers mistake their foretaste for the fulness, not realizing that the Lord is just beginning to lead them

"The forwardness of nature is the failure of our youth--our spiritual youth, as well as our natural youth; eagerness to run in God's path, but not apprehending what the path is, or what it requires to walk in it. On the other hand, when the cost is counted, and our weakness known, the energy begotten of self-confidence being gone, we need a stimulating call on God's part, to get out of the persistent occupation with our weakness now, as with our strength before." -F.W.G.

"Suffering is not meant by God to be loss and deprivation. Satan says that it is. God means suffering to result in increased spiritual capacity, which is the basis of added responsibility, trust, and fruitful sharing. The branch of the vine may bleed from the drastic pruning and feel stripped of much glory; but more and better fruit is the vinedresser's vindication."

"As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (1 Corinthians 15:49).
WithChrist.org

6-10. DIVINE LAYAWAY

"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:12).
In faith we apprehend the growth truths; in fact the Lord Jesus apprehends us for growth in those truths.

"I have been much struck by the thought of the hiddenness and slowness of God's workings. It must be a matter of distinct faith. If we do not understand this it will make us impatient. If we understand it will teach us to rest in God and to yield ourselves all the more joyfully to Him to work out His purpose. In all creation time is the great perfecter of growth. So with us, God will perfect that which concerns us."

"'Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness' (Romans 4:3), when his faith apprehended the promise of God; yet it was nearly 40 years after that this Scripture was fulfilled, when he offered his son. The faith had its apprehension and enjoyment for many a year before the work of faith.

"In proportion as the revelation is of God, in like measure must there be an answer to it sooner or later. Effect must follow cause. If the light has been received, the day will come that it must assert and obtain an expression of itself."

"Two glad services are ours,
Both the Master loves to bless.
First we serve with all our powers,
Then with all our helplessness."

"I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:14).

6-11. TREASURE TROVE

"But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you" (Romans 8:9).

The Spirit's ministry is to make Christ all to each.

"We are the objects of the continual care and discipline of our heavenly Father. If we walk after the flesh, instead of after the Spirit, this may call for His loving rebuke and chastening (child training); but that in no way interferes with the precious truth of our continual acceptance and position in the risen Lord Jesus Christ, by whose one offering we have been perfected forever.

"Through grace, we are not in the flesh, but in Christ, yet the flesh is in us; but our part is to reckon it as having been, before God and to faith, judicially put to death in Christ crucified, thus setting us free to be so constantly occupied with the triumphant Son of God, as to find all our resources, all our strength, all our springs, in Him." -H.H.S.

"If we have the Lord Jesus, we have all--without Him, we have nothing. You can be happy without money, without liberty, without parents, and without friends, if He is yours. If you have not Christ, neither money, nor liberty, nor parents, nor friends can make you happy. Christ, with a chain, is liberty; liberty without Christ is a chain. Christ without anything is riches--all things, without Christ, is poverty indeed."

"If children, then heirs--heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ--if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together" (Romans 8:17).

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6-13. THREE-FOLD CORD

"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18).

The Word of life, the Lord of life, and the exigencies of life all must combine to give us a ministry of life.

"There is no personal knowledge of God but as we count on Him, as we are practically conscious of depending on Him and of His caring for us. One without straits, and victories, really has no growing acquaintance with God; and where there is not this, however great the intelligence or sincerity, there is little or no savor."

"It is the trials and difficulties of the way that are the opportunities for our hearts to grow in acquaintance with Him; and it will be found, while there may be a great enjoyment in ministry, and in the unfolding of truth, that really there is not strength but in proportion as one has learned how God has been for and with one in the trials and sorrows of the way; and as one has known Him in them, so is one able to speak of Him."

"The one purpose which our Father has in view, in all His ways, is to conform us to the image of His Son. This may explain our perplexities as to the past; it will govern our behavior in the present; it is to be our guidance in the future. The chief concern of our Lord is not to instruct us about a multitude of details, not to explain to us the reason for the trials which we are called to pass through. He is working out everything to serve His supreme purpose in displaying the character of His Son in His redeemed ones."

"For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God" (2 Corinthians 4:15).
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It is sometimes the trials of seemingly empty-meaninglessness that can be the most surprising because there’s nothing to see, only feel. Unlike trials that involve visible elements whereby we can utilize our senses, trials involving invisible elements can be puzzling. This is when opportunity for faith can be most appropriated, because there’s less opportunity for your senses to be of use.

Therefore, the seemingly empty-meaninglessness trials can be the most fruit-bearing because faith is at its greatest substance (Heb 11:1) when visibility is at its least (Rom 8:24). Since only in this life faith will be used, we would do well to maximize the “trying of your faith” by exercising, as much as is within us, that which it produces first—patience (Jam 1:3; Rom 5:3). “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7); in eternity it will be inverted to walking by sight, not by faith.

Along with neighborly love, our patience is also the most usable gauge when evaluating the position of our conformity to Christ. As we know, Scripture has much to say concerning patience and it was the Lord Himself who said, “By your patience possess your souls” (Luke 21:19 NKJ). -NC

6-14. "THY WILL BE DONE"

"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into various trials" (James 1:2).

You can be sure that you are in the will of God when He keeps you dependent upon Himself, walking in the Holy Spirit, and abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ.

"Often all we think of is, having our need met; but how little a thing is that with God! It would cost Him nothing, we may say, to meet the need of a lifetime in a moment; and a lesser love than His would supply it at once, and get rid of the constant burden.

"But that is not His way. To supply the need is a small thing; but to supply it in such a way as to make us feel in each seasonable supply the Father's heart never withdrawn from us, the Father's heart ever employed about us--that is what He means. 'Give us our daily bread': is it not much more than to ask, 'Give us now, that we may not have to come again?'"

"The God-given experience of the Spirit's working many a time passes away, and leaves the soul apparently dull and dead. This is only until the double lesson has been fully learnt: (1) that a living faith can rejoice in the Living God, even when feeling and experience appear to contradict the promise (Romans 8:28, 29); and (2) that the divine life only predominates as the life of the flesh is held in the place of death, inoperative (Romans 6:11a). The life of the Lord Jesus is revealed as His death works in us (2 Corinthians 4:11, 12), and as in weakness and nothingness we look to him (2 Corinthians 3:18)." -A.M.

"Knowing this, that the testing of your faith worketh patience" (James 1:3).
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6-16. UNDIVIDED ATTENTION

"Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God" (Deuteronomy 8:11).

Our Father would be free to favor us with far more of His riches in Christ Jesus if we would keep more in mind that grace is unmerited favor--so that "He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy" (Romans 9:23).

"It seems so natural, when one is surrounded with blessings, and thus sensible of being an object of divine favor, that the eye is turned from God to oneself; for when God is before one, self gets no place, though there be the deepest awareness of His favor.

"Hence it is the saint who is the object of the greatest favor who needs to be on his guard, that he allow not his eye to rest on himself where the favors are sent, but on God from whom they come. If his eye turns to himself because of the favor, then the favor has been the means of turning his heart from God to a mere gift of His."

"If there be a growing up into the measure of the stature of Christ, there must be a conscious refusal of that which would tend to revive or invigorate the old nature. The saint is not only a new creature to grow into the likeness of the Lord Jesus, but he has to watch and beware lest the things he has to do with should in any way minister to another will in him, which would divert him from God to himself. Self is the circle and center of man's mind in his fallen state; but when Christ is formed in the soul, God is the center and source of everything." -J.B.S.

"For we . . . worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:3).
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6-17. SATISFACTION GUARANTEED

"And you, that were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight" (Colossians 1:21, 22).

In order for our Father to be satisfied with us, He placed us in His Son. In order for us to be satisfied with our Father, we"rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:3).

"On what ground is our faith tested? It is on the ground of our very relationship with God and God's attitude toward us. The concentration of the enemy is upon that point--to interfere with our link with God.

"What is our link with God? It is this--the Lord Jesus Christ, as the answer to God and to Satan for us. It will never be what we are in ourselves. If you are expecting a day to come when in virtue of what you are in yourself you can satisfy God, you are destined to an awful disillusionment. The day will never come when we can satisfy God in ourselves, not even more or less."

"How could there be any doubt about the believers perfect security if his position in the Lord Jesus were realized? It would be impossible. Can He change? Or will God say to Him, I cannot any longer accept You as standing for this people? Or, once again if standing for them, is He on probation? Is His work completely done, or still to do?" -F.W.G.

"And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses" (Colossians 2:13).

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The Christian life is that which is beyond human morality, which evaluates goodness by men “measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves” (2 Cor 10:12). For the believer, it is that “which the Holy Ghost teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Cor 2:13).

While we are aware that where “sin abounded”, we are also aware that ”grace abounded much more” (Rom 5:20). This means that as the Spirit continues to take us into a deeper realization of the degradation and decadency of our Adamic nature, we can know that grace provides for us “a good conscience toward God” (1 Pet 3:21).

“For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God” (1 John 3:20, 21). -NC

6-18. BELOVED OBJECT

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:10).

The Holy Spirit creates within us a hatred for the old nature, and a hunger for the new nature. Without a rejection of the old, there cannot be a projection of the new.

"I want a testimony that delivers me from the things I am occupied about in myself when I am suffering from them. I get it from God's gift that is perfect. I am 'accepted in the Beloved' (Ephesians 1:6). You say, There is something about myself I cannot get over. Remember, the testimony of the Spirit in us is the contrary of the testimony of the Spirit to us. In me, He takes notice of every fault that is not righteousness; but the testimony to us is, 'Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more' (Hebrews 8:12)."

"If we make morality our standard, we will be sure to fall below what we purpose. Whatever we put before us as our criterion, there will be always a falling short. If we have the Lord Jesus Christ risen and in heaven as our Object, we shall prove the power of His resurrection, not only in lifting us up when we are conscious of our exceeding short-comings, but in strengthening us to 'press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus' (Philippians 3:14)."

"The Word of God teaches me union, but the Person of Christ brings out all that I derive from union with Him. The Word is always my authority for my position, but acquaintance with the Person confirms and manifests my position."

"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord" (Ephesians 6:10).

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With this message I leave on a ten-day vacation and will be doing my best to maintain the posts and replies. I thank the Lord for all in “the Household of God” and may His Spirit’s instructions continue with us!

Blessed Be God

6-19. PROPER PRESENTATION

"The things that thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also" (2 Timothy 2:2).

Truth based upon law will be presented legally--it will be legislated. Truth based upon grace will be shared graciously, in love. "Adorn the doctrine of God" by "speaking the truth in love" (Titus 2:10; Ephesians 4:15).

"There are two things that have to be taken into account in communicating truth. Not merely should there be certainty that it is the truth from God, but it must also be suited truth to those whom you address. They might need it all, but they may not be in condition to receive it; and the more precious the truth, the greater the injury, in a certain sense, if it is presented to those who are not in a state to profit by it."

"We are to serve under His direction, and according to His pleasure; not just because opportunity or need offers. We require His direction, and the knowledge of His pleasure, however favorable the opportunity or the occasion. We see a servant in Acts 8 taken away from an interesting field of service, to meet one man in the desert. "It is not a question of how we succeed; but have we the assurance that we are doing the Lord's pleasure? Happy is the servant who is so led by Him that he always presents the measure of truth suited to the state of souls, and refuses to supply the knowledge that puffeth up."

"Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual" (1 Corinthians 2:13).

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6-21. PERSONIFICATION

"God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction" (Genesis 41:52).

To share what we have may minister temporarily to the physical; but to minister to the spiritual in an eternal way we must share what we are, and that calls for growth in the Lord Jesus Christ.

"We can only comfort others with the comfort wherewith we ourselves have been comforted of God. Others can only really be helped by what has been the power of life in the would-be helper.

"Information, by itself, however correct and orthodox, however strongly held in conviction and passed on in passion, will lack an essential and indispensable quality or value for spiritual constitution.

"Hence it has ever been God's way to raise up a vessel, personal or corporate, in which His message has been wrought by fiery ordeal. The messenger must not only have the message in him, but he must be in the message: not only in mind and feeling, but in experience and being." -T. A-S.

"We really can only come into the reality of things by being 'pressed out of measure' (2 Corinthians 1:8). So the Lord has to take much time to make our spiritual history. When at length our eyes are open, we cry, 'O, why did I not see it before!' But everything else had to prove insufficient before we could really be shown, and that takes time."

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time" (1 Peter 5:6).

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As believers, we could not be in better hands. Regardless of what occurs or what our old minds may think up, our Father never turns us over to anything but His own training of love-chastening. Nothing ever negative comes from God’s care for us, even when there may be times when something may start as a negative, God works it out as a positive for our good and not a moment of time is wasted.

When we become too self-centered, any negativity from self can be enhanced, even beyond necessity and the carnal imagination can take flight, attempting to discourage but even this, along with whatever transpires is the believer’s life, will be used as an advantage.

For the “household of God”, all is blood-covered, so “casting all your care on Him” (1 Pet 5:7) is the instruction of the day and there is no greater exercise of faith than to realize He already knows everything we will think and do and yet, He wants us to understand and believe “He made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph 1:6). -NC

6-23. LOVE'S LEGACY

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God" (Philippians 4:6).

Ignorance insures insecurity; scriptural knowledge secures strength. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7).

"In mechanics, wobbling is weakness. Power issues from God's restfulness. Are we resting in the Lord? Can we wait patiently for Him to act? Anxiety reduces spiritual energy. Lack of rest of heart is one of the most serious hindrances to Christians.

"Fret of soul when wronged, or fuss over financial or other concerns, is a depletion of power, a dissipation of energy. From the rock basis of rest in Him we can put forth the whole of our energies. Perfect peace is our promised portion."

"Martha gets instruction; we all get that, for our Lord neglects none of us; but she did not get His company; company is what gives rest to the heart."

"Nothing can separate the believer from the love of God, and under no circumstances whatever can he come under the infliction of wrath from God. He may have to correct His saints for their sins, and where there has been no failure He may chasten (child train) them for their profit, that they may become partakers of His holiness; but all this is in love, not in wrath. Every action of God toward His saints is in grace and blessing; it is ever the outcome of His love."

"And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:7).

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6-24. GRATUITOUS GRACE

"Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law but under grace" (Romans 6:14).

Grace forsaken is freedom forfeited.

"In considering the whole testimony of the Bible, it is almost as important for the believer who would do the will of God to recognize that which does not concern him as it is for him to recognize that which does concern him.

"It is obvious that, apart from the knowledge of dispensational truth, the believer will not be intelligently adjusted to the present purpose and will of God in the world. Such knowledge alone will save him from assuming the hopeless legality of the dispensation that is past or from undertaking the impossible world transforming program belonging to the dispensation which is to come." -W.S.C.

"The Law of Moses is interrelated and wholly dependent on the sacrifices and ritual provided for Israel in the land. The laws of the kingdom (Sermon on the Mount) are only related to the future kingdom conditions which shall be in the earth under the power and presence of the King when Satan is bound, creation delivered, and all shall know the Lord from the least unto the greatest.

"All harmony of truth is shattered when there is the slightest commingling of the principles of law and grace. Grace alone now reigns through Christ to the glory of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."

"By the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me" (1 Corinthians 15:10).

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6-25. PLUS, OR MINUS?

"For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love" (Galatians 5:6).

Grace + Law = Death. Grace - Law = Life!

"Covenant theology, which has molded the major theological conceptions for many generations, recognizes no distinctions as to ages, therefore can allow for no distinctions between law and grace. This dominating attitude of Covenantism must account for the utter neglect of life truth (growth) in all their works of theology.

"No more representative theological dictum from the Covenant viewpoint has been formed than the Westminster Confession of Faith, which valuable and important document recognizes life truth only to the point of imposing the Ten Commandments on Christians as their sole obligation, and in spite of the teachings of the New Testament which asserts that the Law was never given to Gentile or Christian."-L.S.C.

"While freeing believers from the bondage of Rome, the Protestant Reformation brought them back, in large measure, under the bondage of Sinai. The Reformation took away one set of bindings, but bound the believers with another--and this has atrophied the spiritual life of multitudes." -D.G.B.

"Not a single cluster of living fruit ever was, or ever will be, culled from the tree of legality. Law can only produce 'dead works,' from which we need to have conscience purged just as much as from 'wicked works.'" -C.H.M.

"Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty with which Christ hath made us free" (Galatians 5:1 ).

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6-26. EDIFYING EQUILIBRIUM

"That ye may be blameless and harmless, children of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world" (Philippians 2:15).

There should be neither undergrowth, nor overgrowth, but balanced growth. Spiritual equilibrium alone will bring forth much fruit both in us and in others.

"A popular notion that the first obligation of the Church is to spread the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth is false. The first obligation is to be spiritually worthy to spread it. . . to spread an effete (worn out) and degenerate brand of Christianity to pagan lands is not to fulfill the Great Commission."

"We were created for more than our own spiritual development; reproduction, not mere development, is the goal to mature being--reproduction in other lives. There is a tendency in some characters, running parallel to the high cultivation that spends its whole energy on the production of bloom at the expense of seed.

"The flowers that are bent on perfecting themselves, by becoming double, end in barrenness, and a like barrenness comes to the soul whose interests are all concentrated upon its own spiritual well-being, heedless of the needs around. The true, ideal flower, is the one that uses its gifts as means to an end; the brightness and sweetness are not for its own glory; they are but to attract the bees and butterflies that will fertilize and make it fruitful." -L.T.

"Holding forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain" (Philippians 2:16).

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6-27. TRUTH, OR CONSEQUENCES

"I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you" (1 John 2:14).

Experience may ratify, or it may repudiate, truth. The Word alone, to faith, is truth unalterable.

"If I allow the thought that what I am toward God will in some way or other affect what God is toward me, I shall be filled with the spectre of bondage. But when I see that what God is toward me is altogether the outcome of what He is, and that He is this though knowing perfectly what I am, it puts my heart in the right direction for liberty." -C.A.C.

"God speaks to us according to His estimate of our standing, our position: it may not be our heart's experience. There is a distinctness between the operation of the Spirit of God in bringing me unto the Lord Jesus, bearing witness to me of God's love, and of the efficacy of what Christ has done--and His operation in my soul to produce the image of His Son.

"That which is the subject of experience is what is produced in my soul, whereas that which gives me peace is His testimony to the work and life of Christ. A Christian who doubts the Father's love to him, and who looks for peace to that which passes in his own heart, is doubting God's truth. The Word is the revelation God has given of Himself; it displays the love of God toward us, and what is in His heart. I can trust the declaration of what is in God's heart, and not what I think of myself." -J.N.D.

"If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine" (1 Timothy 4:6).

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6-28. THE TREE OF LIFE

"Not I, but Christ" (Galatians 2:20).

It is not a matter of what fruit, but of which tree!

"What salvation has done is not merely forgiving me my sins; forgiveness, cleansing, justifying, applies to my responsibility and guilty condition in the first Adam; but salvation applies to my standing in the Last Adam. It is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).

"What would you do if you wanted to make something of a crab tree? Not nurture, and prune, and dig about it. That God has done with His fig tree (Israel). If you know anything about it, you will cut it down and graft it. Until you find out that the old man is utterly bad, and that there is no mending it, you will not give it up. If you cultivate the old crab tree you will have fair blossoms but only bigger and more sour crab apples." -J.N.D.

"Before we were saved, worldly objects and affairs usurped the place of Christ; but after being saved, spiritual objects and affairs now tend to occupy His place. Earlier God took from us the things of this world; presently He is taking away our spiritual thing or things. He removes our personal patience, love, power, gentleness, humility.

"Indeed, He removes all, that we may not live by these good things but live by a Person instead. We are patient not because we have received a power to be so, but because we have got a patient Person. So it is with humility and the rest: not a power but a Person." The fruit of the Spirit is the life of Christ.

"For to me to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:27).

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6-29. APPLICABLE APPLICATION

"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort" (2 Corinthians 1:3).

We have all cringed at the sad spectacle of the "nouveau riche." And yet many of us as believers present the same failure--flaunting and mishandling our spiritual riches in Christ Jesus.

"The Lord deals with us in order that we might be able to minister in an apt way. His stewards are to be men of understanding, who can touch the various needs, who can reach the heart, so that the Lord's children are saying: That just fits me! That touches my case! That person must know! That one must have been through it! Yes, the Lord knows, and He would take you and me through experiences such as will make us sharers in a living way--and that is what He is doing." -T. A-S.

"It is a new day to your soul when you realize that Christ is the Source of everything, and that it is from Himself you must draw, and not from ministry about Him. Many can explain Scripture and even apply it, who are not under the effect of it themselves. They have not come from Him, and are not themselves imbued with that which they are trying to convey.

"There is much wise counsel and good teaching which is not applicable to the moment and to the need. It does not effect what is the Lord's desire as the end of the ministry, which is to lead the soul to Himself, because it is not spoken in communion with Himself. You must first get to where He is, and then you are brought into harmony with the scene where He is."

"Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them who are in any trouble, by the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted of God" (2 Corinthians 1:4).

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6-30. NO CROSS, NO CHRIST!

"Whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:27).

One hears much today about "body life," with its emphasis upon New Testament gathering, rather than Christ-centered growth. The Body is meant to manifest the Head, and that necessitates spiritual members.

"Where there is no Cross there is no life, and no ministry of life. The object of suffering is that there may be a full and abundant ministry. . . . We are not to invite trouble, nor by austerity to ill-treat our bodies. The Holy Spirit Himself takes responsibility for our experience, leading us in paths where we encounter, in body, heart, or spirit, that measure of 'the dying of Jesus' that will mean enrichment of our ministry."

"There are many today who seem to think that it is all or largely a matter of the order, technique, and form, and if we are to return to the 'New Testament' form or order of churches all would be well. The fact is that, while certain things characterize the N.T. churches, the Word does not give us a complete pattern according to which churches are to be formed!

"There is no blueprint for churches in the N.T., and to try to form such churches is only to create another system which may be as legal, sectarian and dead as others. Churches, like the Church, are organisms which spring out of life, which life itself springs out of the Cross of Christ wrought into the very being of believers. Unless believers are crucified people, there can be no true expression of the Church." -T. A-S.

"God forbid that I should glory, except in the Cross" (Galatians 6:14).

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6-31. MANUALLY CONTROLLED

"Having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them" (Colossians 2:15).

"For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4:15-17). Amen!

"The sovereignty of God is what alone gives rest to the Christian heart in view of a world full of evil, which is gone astray from Him. To know that after all, in spite of the rebellion of the creature, things are as absolutely in His hand as ever they were--this brings, and alone brings, full relief. Still He rules over all, and where evil cannot be turned to good, limits and forbids it: He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath (what would go beyond this) He restrains (Psalm 76:10)." -F.W.G.

"People may quarrel with the sovereignty of God, but I love it, because I know enough about my natural bent and will to be sure that if left to myself I should have gone straight to perdition. Some believers talk about man's free will when they are on their feet, but all are firm believers in God's sovereignty when they get on their knees." -C.A.C.

"Human history is not in the grip of fate, but in the hands of Him Who was pierced for us on Calvary." -W.G.S.

"Now thanks be unto God, who always causeth us to triumph in Christ" (2 Corinthians 2:14).

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7-2. PERSONAL APPRECIATION

"As ye have, therefore, received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him " (Colossians 2 7).

We appreciate His benefits toward us, but are we appreciative do we express to Him our appreciation? "Let us be very watchful that the inner life, communion with the Lord Jesus, be the true source of our activities. "

The Lord Jesus longs for fellowship with us. He does not want patronage. It does not meet the desire of His heart to be followed, or admired, or gazed at, because of what He can do or give. He delights in a heart taught of the Spirit to appreciate His Person, for this glorifies and gratifies the Father. He retires from the gaze of an excited and tumultuous throng who would fain make Him a king, because they had eaten of the loaves and were filled; but He could turn with touching earnestness to the little band of disciples who still remained, and challenge their hearts with the question, 'Will ye also go away?'

"Love could never be too near to its object. Nearness to the Lord Jesus is the instinct of divine life, as we see in the first question of the two disciples who followed Him, 'Where dwellest Thou?' Why is not this the first question now? Because there is not simple devotedness of heart to the Lord Jesus Christ."
There is nothing in all the world so precious to the Father as a heart that, in any measure, appreciates His Son. "

"Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and l will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).

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At the next coming of Christ it will be our condition, not our position, which will change because our present position of acceptance with the Father could not be efficacious than it is now; for “He hath made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph 1:6).

Presently, the believer is guiltless before the Father, but conditionally, not sinless. This will not be until “the redemption of our body” (Rom 8:23), when it will be “the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body” (Phil 3:20, 21) and only then will it be “That He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Eph 5:27).

Positionally, all believers are equal but conditionally, they vary. A believer’s manner of living is determined by the response acted upon concerning the Word of God, because it is the Word through which the Holy Spirit applies the life of Christ to change us “into the same image” (2 Cor 3:18).

What are the “spot, or wrinkle” and “blemish” that we will be lacking when “we shall be changed” (1 Cor 15:51, 52) to “meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess 4:17)? The corruptible body and the Adamic nature! -NC

7-3. NOW AND FOREVER FREE!

"Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:7,8).

We can trust Him for our matriculation here, and we can trust Him for our examination and graduation in Glory!

That word, 'blameless,' may be translated 'unimpeachable' or unaccusable.' In other words, when we stand at last at the judgment seat of Christ, God Himself is going to see to it that no charge can stand against any believer, because the Lord Jesus Christ has atoned for all our sins with His own precious Blood. Every failure in life will be dealt with there, and all the wood, hay, and stubble will be burned in the fire of that day and we shall stand before our Lord unimpeachable, unaccusable." -H.A.I.

"Instead of my sins being between myself and Him, as before, it is Himself who is now between me and my sins; and the One who has thus interposed has given me to know that in the doing it He has brought me to Himself, and tuned my heart to His own praise.
He has borne the judgment due to my sins, and condemned sin in the flesh; in the Person of my Substitute I am clear from, and carried beyond, the judgment forever, the power of death is annulled, that of Satan finally broken."

"Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? Shall God that justifieth? Who is he that condemneth? Shall Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is ever' at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us?" (Romans 8:33,34).

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There’s nothing more needless and unnecessary for the believer than to contend with the “old man”. Are we settled with the idea to continually turn everything over to over to the Lord? We can “wrestle” (Eph 6:12) without contending, for we are admonished, nay, commanded in “Casting all your care upon Him; for He cares for you” (1 Pet 5:7). Failure in this is to incur a hindrance, “for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage” (2 Pet 2:19).

To attempt to battle and overcome sin itself is to unknowingly misunderstand that it has been dealt with: “I am He who lives and was dead and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death” (Rev 1:18). We “overcome evil” when attempted against us, by doing “good” (Rom 12:21); that is, overcome the evil man and the evil he has done you by doing good to him, as presented in the four preceding verses 17-20.

The believer is not to “give place to the devil” (Eph4:27) but rather, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (Jam 4:7). This accomplishment involves “That ye put off . . . the old man” that we may “put on the new man” (Eph 4:22, 24).

“The putting off of the old man is not a removing him from the saints, nor a destroying him in them, nor a changing his nature; for he remains, and remains alive, and is the same old man he ever was, in regenerate persons; but it is a putting him off from his seat, and a putting him down from his government; a showing no regard to his rule and dominion, to his laws and lusts, making no provision for his support.” -JG

We can “enter into His rest” (Heb 4:10) by realizing and remembering that Christ has already, for the believer, triumphed over all evil; whether it be evil from our fellow man, our “old man” or “spiritual wickedness in high places”, we should identify and acknowledge the evil and cast our concerns of it on the Lord. -NC

7-4. REST AND REJOICE!

"Rejoice in the Lord always!" (Philippians 4:4).

Exhaustive effort brings home the necessity of strengthening rest. The believer will not be ready to enter into his spiritual rest until he is utterly worn out by his unsuccessful efforts to conquer sin and the old man. There is no rest for the "wretched man" of Romans 7-that struggle must lead to the rest of Romans 8.

"Grace is sufficient for favorable circumstances, but they are by far the most trying (spiritually) to the believer. There is an easy way of going on in worldliness, and there is nothing more sad than the quiet comfortable Christian going on day by day, apart from dependence upon the Lord.

"It must be as with Israel and the manna; there must be the daily gathering and daily dependence upon God. If circumstances come between our hearts and God, we are powerless. If the Lord Jesus is nearer, circumstances will not hinder our joy in God ."

"The heart of man naturally seeks rest, and seeks it here. Now, there is no rest to be found here for the believer; but it is written, 'There remaineth, therefore, a rest to the people of God' (Hebrews 4:9).

"To know this is both full of blessing and full of sorrow: sorrow to the flesh; because it is always seeking its rest here, it has always to be disappointed; blessing to the spirit, because the spirit, being born of God, can only rest in God's rest, as it is said, 'If they shall enter into My rest' (Hebrews 4:5). What God desires for us is to bring us into the enjoyment of all that which He Himself enjoys." -J.N.D.

"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently' for Him" (Psalm 37: 7).

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7-5. HIS CROSS -- OUR CROSS

"He said to them all, If any man will come after Me, let him. . . take up his Cross daily " (Luke 9. 23).

We go all the way to Calvary in faith and there find ourselves identified with the Lord Jesus in His death and resurrection. And Calvary comes all the way to us in experience as the Holy Spirit applies that finished work to our lives.

"In the Reformation there was, through grace, a great deliverance. The groundwork of Christianity was recovered; namely, justification by faith. But though this was recovered, it was not maintained that the old man was crucified on the Cross, and hence they only refused the exactions of popery, but recognized the flesh as still before God. Refusing the exaction was right; but the retention of that in which the exaction could be made, the old man, was the weakness of the Reformation. "

"I do not see the Cross truly if I only see it as opening a way of escape for me, and yet allowing that in me to escape which has incurred the judgment of the Cross. "

"In the present day (1867) the truth is lowered to the measure of man's need; hence if the need is met, which grace does, the convert makes little or no advance; he rests in the satisfaction of his need, instead of being directed to the scope of God's thought, which only begins with his need. "Where would souls be put if they were simply and definitely instructed in Christ Jesus and Him crucified and risen; connected by faith with the living One, who was crucified, and whose death terminated man in the flesh?" -J.B.S.

"Whosoever doth not, bear his Cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple'' (Luke 14:27).

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7-6. AFFLICTION'S EFFECT

"But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ " (Philippians 3:7).

Our Father has many reasons for administering trial— all good. Trial teaches us the futility of the old life, and the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus-our new life.

"The Christian suffers the same calamities as others, perhaps even worse; he faces difficulties and losses in the things of this life; he has to be prepared to meet death itself. In all these circumstances he is calm and trustful; he is not only sure of ultimately going to heaven, but already abides there and enjoys something of it in his own heart.

"God is real to him and ever near. He knows a peace which passes all understanding, and he experiences a joy which no man can take from him. This, surely, should be our testimony in the world, but it can only be as the Lord Jesus Himself lives out this life in us." -H.F.

"The world is divided into two things-pleasures and afflictions; I am more afraid of the pleasures than the afflictions. In afflictions you turn to the Lord. The danger is of being carried away by the very favors God has given to man. "

"Those who suffer from chastening ought to be before the Father, owning His hand; and He who has wounded will heal. The Lord Jesus did not take the cup which He had to drink from us, from man, nor from Satan; but from His Father's hand."

"Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord" (Philippians 3:8).

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7-7. "PEACE ON EARTH"

"Let the peace of God rule in your hearts " (Colossians 3:15).
Peace does not, and cannot, exist in the fallen Adam life; and as long as the old man reigns within, there is going to be turmoil both within and without. The path of the Cross is alone the path of peace.

"The moment came when the Lord Jesus could say, 'Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you' (John 14:27). This could only be on the ground of His death, for the man in Adam could never give up his will: to do so would be to give up his very existence. But the death of the Lord Jesus is-judicially, and for faith-the end of that man, and the Christian walking in the Spirit owns him no more.

"The believer can thus, and only thus, have freedom from the tyranny of sin as he reckons himself to have died unto sin, and to be alive unto God as one 'alive from the dead.' He presents his body a living sacrifice unto God, and proves what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Thus walking, the peace of the Lord Jesus becomes an experiential reality in the heart of the believer. Thank God! we are no longer linked with the fallen Adam, and the Holy Spirit has placed us in union with Christ risen and glorified." -C.A.C.

"The more clearly we enter, by faith, into objective truth, or what is true of us in the Lord Jesus, the deeper, more experiential and practical will be the Spirit's subjective work in us, and the more complete will be the manifestation of the moral effect in our life and character. " -C.H.M.

"Both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one" (Hebrews 2:11).

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How often have we forgotten when enduring a hardness, that the Lord is not only with us in it but knew it was inevitable and that even if we think we may not have not properly responded to it, He always works it “together for good” to our advantage? If we think it’s the result of something in which we've made a wrong decision, He still works accordingly.

He knows we never want to ultimately decide on anything that would displease Him, so we need not to ever allow the Enemy, our old self or anyone to use anything to make us feel guilty, concerning anything (this doesn’t include non-repented wrongs); remorseful for wrongs but not guilt. It's not as though we are on probation, because all forgiveness has been settled for us and everything is now part of Him teaching us.

7-9. PATH PROXIMITY

"God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency, may abound to every good work " (2 Corinthians 9:8).
Suffering takes us in condition where truth has us in position.

"We will never learn any truth in experience excepting in the deepening knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the lack of this which is the cause of weakness among believers; bare doctrine is not personal fellowship with Him. We have that which is lovely and full of blessing in Him; but if we are to know it as such; to prove its truth, to enjoy it always, it must be in taking these things as connected with Him." -J.N.D.

"The passive power of faith needs for its sustenance closer communion with the Father than its active energy. Action, as it were, nerves us to the conflict; but quiet endurance of wrong, or suffering of any kind, which neither friend nor foe sees, but only God, this indeed needs divine power, and without God's support none would bear the strain. Many a saint has shown the courage of faith before his enemies, as Elijah when he faced Ahab, but who, like him, quails and flees, where there is nothing to do, but quietly trust in God."

"There is but one thought with our Father in disciplining us, namely, to make our trials an opportunity for our heart to learn and discover more of His love, and the resources which are in Him as He has revealed them to us in His Son." -J.B.S.

"There is no way of learning faith except by trial. It is God's school of faith, and it is far better for us to learn to trust our Father than to enjoy life."

"As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things " (2 Corinthians 6:10).

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7-10. BEHOLD, THE MAN!

"[God] hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus " (Ephesians 2:6).

There aren't many truly happy Christians simply because there aren't many who really abide in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our risen Lord is the source of our happiness as we rest in Him-triumphant over circumstances; not hopelessly underneath them. Happy is the abiding believer, "hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3).

"I must not only see my position in the Lord Jesus, but I must come near to the One who set me there. Many are
disappointed that after hearing with delight and receiving the truth of their position they are not more affected by it.

"The reason is that they rest too much in the position and have not occupied themselves increasingly with their risen Lord; have not drawn nearer to Him, and recognized Him as the only One who can make it all experiential in them." -J.B.S.

"Is the living Person now in heavenly glory really the Object of our hearts? For some time after I knew the Savior I used to think of Him as One who had lived and died on earth long years ago, and I well remember the day when I knelt down with a dear brother who prayed that we might know the Lord Jesus as a living Person in heavenly glory, and it dawned upon me that there was a present Object for my heart in heaven. Our hearts will never be satisfied until that glorified Lord Jesus becomes our Object bright and fair. "

"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth" (Colossians 3:2).

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7-11. GRACE AND MERCY

"But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).
If and when the trial comes, you will find Him waiting there.

"We should always be prepared for circumstances that will arise, and for blessings that are to come, without foreseeing what these circumstances and blessings will be. This preparation consists in attention to present responsibility, and acceptance of present discipline.

"If day by day we first seek divine direction, and then follow it, we shall be ready, when new circumstances arise, for the new blessings which will be offered. Today should be preparation for tomorrow. The only proof that we shall be equal to tomorrow's test is that we are meeting today's test believingly and courageously. The only evidence that we shall be willing for God's will tomorrow is that we are subject to His will today. " -W.G. S.

"Our Lord has special reserves of grace for special needs. If ever you feel that you could not go through a certain trial, that if you had to face that, you just could not go through with it, you are taking on something that you have no right to take on.
"If the Lord calls you to go through fire or water, He has a special reserve of grace for you in that. And that grace will be from the throne of grace. It is the throne above, mediating grace for need and suffering as it is required." -T. A-S.

"Let us. . . come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need " (Hebrews 4:16).

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It is not that Christ’s walk is substituted for ours, or His holiness which is imputed to us, or anything of the kind. It is not yet the question of how to walk, but of what I am; but a question which, when settled in God’s way, stops necessarily the effort to be what no effort of mine can make me, and what, thank God, His infinite grace has already made me: “complete in Him.” “As Christ is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).

Could effort of ours make us “as Christ is’? It would be clearly impossible; and yet nothing but this would reach up to the standard God has given us. Nothing short of this would be perfection, and nothing short of perfection could we rightly rest in. If imperfection God cannot accept, and perfection I cannot bring Him, what then? Then I must accept of my Father’s providing, and find in the Lord Jesus a new self that needs no mending and cannot be improved, where no body of death disturbs or oppresses, and occupation with which is not legalism, nor Pharisaism.

I am privileged to turn away from what I find in myself as a man down here, then, because in the death of the Cross, the death wherein I died with Him, “sin in the flesh” has been fully dealt with. The condemnation of it by God has already found its full expression on the Cross. For faith, not for experience, I too have died and that “to sin”, because “He died unto sin once.” I reckon myself (not feel or find myself) to be dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus Rom 6:11). -- F.W. Grant

7-12. POSITIONAL CONDUCT

"They who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1 7).

"Law and grace are separated by the infinite chasm of the Cross. Law required right conduct first, with earthly position to be earned thereby. Grace gives heavenly position immediately, which ultimately produces right conduct. "Ye are not under the law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14).

"The believer does not walk in order to reach the throne. On the contrary. His walk is determined by the fact that he has been placed with the Lord Jesus in a position of immeasurable ascendancy. He has been made to sit together with Christ in heavenly places in order that, having received an abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, he might reign in life by one, even the Lord Jesus.

"He walks like a king because he is a king (Revelation 1:6). He is not called upon to walk in kingly fashion in order that he may reach the throne. God's order is different. The Christian begins at the throne and his kingly manner is only the inevitable outcome of his exalted position.

"Our frustrations and agonies in an effort to attain the unattainable, our shame and our defeats such as we find in Paul's own experience tabulated so faithfully in Romans 7, come about naturally and inevitably when, failing to grasp all this, we put the emphasis on our conduct rather than our position, which must come first." -F.J.H.

"Unto Him that loveth us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us a kingdom of priests unto God and His Father, to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever " (Revelation 1 :5, 6).

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What does “casting all your care upon Him” involve (1 Pet 5:7)? It involves an ongoing dependence on the Father at all times for all things, “for He cares for you”. Any action other than this is an expectation of provision from self and disappointment is sure to follow; for not only is this a failure to realize that God wants to provide for “all your care”, there is also the idea that there must something that falls to us out of responsibility of doing our part. Though there may appear to be a seemingly necessity to “help yourself”, self-help is infinitely inferior to God’s desire for us.

There are certain expectations of us from God but they are always within the framework of depending on Him to cause whatever occurs in our life (even bad decisions) to “work together for good” (Rom 8:28). The saying, “it’s all good” has been popularized but this truism is only for the believer; to and from the unbeliever is nothing truly good, for only “He who does good is of God” (3 John 1:11). “To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled.” (Titus 1:15).

Identifying the vulnerability of self, which will repetitiously occur - esp. during times of excessive self-concern, is the evidence of learning to understand that “the old man” is ever present, which through the Spirit’s work is kept dormant: “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish” (Gal 5:17). -NC

7-13. LOOK AND LIVE!

"But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord " (2 Corinthians 3:18).

As the plant to the sun, we look to the Son for growth!

"What is the good of a man being ennobled, made a prince of, if he feels he has gained no more or sensible acquisition by it? This is the disappointment which souls feel without being able to account for it; and they are subject to nights of wrestling, because they have rested in their grand title, instead of in the means of supporting their titles, which is dependence on, and ever deepening acquaintance with, the One who has conferred them. -J.B.S.

"I cannot conceive anything more satisfying or cheering to the heart than the consciousness that I may not only draw near, but that I draw near in answer to the thought and interest that the Lord Jesus has about me, and that I draw nigh to enjoy myself in His presence where there is so much thought and interest about me. It is there my heart goes out in acknowledgment of Him in answer to His deep, gracious, and everlasting love. "

"By means of the Word, look to the Lord Jesus in faith. Exercise the blessed trust that He is yours, and that He has given Himself to you, and that you have a claim to all that is in Him. It is His purpose to work out His image in you. Behold Him with the joyful and certain expectation: the glory that I behold in Him is destined for me!" -A.M.

"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the fare of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6).

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7-14. THE MARCH OF TIME

"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him " (Psalm 37 7).

The difference between knowing the Lord Jesus as Savior and knowing Him as Life, is the better part of a lifetime; even for the hungriest of hearts. "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:14).
"In receiving the Word of God by faith, there is first, light; then exercise of conscience; third, prayer-you are cast on God; fourth, the work of the Spirit to lead you into it.

"Not one of us is beyond the work of the Spirit in us. Many think, because they have the light of a truth that they are in the power and reality of it. No! you may have all the Bible, have much light, but there is no growth beyond the measure of the Spirit's work in us.

"Conception of a truth is one thing, and execution is quite another. Grace may have been furnished you with a true conception, but you must wait on the Lord to carry it out by His Spirit. The working out of a true conception is the real discipline."

"Do not be discouraged because you may not carry out your purpose at once; God will carry it out, but you must keep in the place where you will be preserved, in the circle of His interests.
"Moses had to wait forty years to carry out his purpose, which was a right one, though in the first flush the flesh sought to carry it out; but in the Lord's time, how fully every purpose of his heart was met–all the way to the Mount of Transfiguration!"

"Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord. (Hosea 6:3).

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Are you “enduring hardness” (2 Tim 2:3) or going through a “fiery trial” (1 Pet 4:12)? Usually it’s not related to anything we have have done but is the orchestrated hand of the Father in His conforming us “to the image of His Son” (Rom 8:29). What we do is determined by where we are in God’s conformation process and so we are always met with proportionate situations just for this purpose. When the trial is related to something we have incurred, He applies His chastising-love for the same reason and remember, He always knows when this is to happen.

Out of the self-centeredness of the “old man” we at times attribute occurrences, good and bad, to ourselves when in actuality it’s the result of God’s direction. There’s nothing we can think or do that He doesn’t already know about beforehand and remembering He uses it all for our “conforming” encourages us to know the complete control He continually has over our lives. “The steps of a [good] man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way (Psa 37:23). -NC

7-15. THE HAND OF LIFE

"That I may know Him . . being made conformable unto His death " (Philippians 3:10).

The life that emerges from death is administered by a loving, nail-pierced hand.

"As with the seed that is buried once for all, but then disintegrated through a gradual process that sets free the new life, even so does our Father deal with our old nature by delivering it to death with the Lord Jesus once for all, and then bringing about its mortifying in detail through the circumstances of daily life, until the power of the old man has lost its hold on us. " -L.T.

"We are going to have to learn death in order to know life. Redemption must be known first, and the ultimate effect will be death to sin, to selfishness; and all this is very trying. One might be tempted to say, All this trial comes upon me because I have not been redeemed. Not so; it is just because you are redeemed. We may seek to avoid the bitter waters of Marah, but our Father will bring us to them. He intends to break down what is of the old man, and then, in His own good time, He will pour in that which sweetens all.

"But because God has brought me to Himself, He is putting His finger on everything that hinders complete dependence upon Him, or my soul's full enjoyment of Himself. So count it not strange, though it be a fiery trial which is to try you; for the Father will have you drink of the very thing (death) that redeemed you."

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5).

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7-16. PASSIVE RESISTANCE

"There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus " (Romans 8:1).

Until the believer realizes that his life is safely hid with Christ in God, he will never get free from the harassment of the enemy. "When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble?" (Job 34:29). "If the Lord Jesus is not positively before the soul, it is enough: the enemy's work is done!" -F.W.G.

"There is a world of difference between the nagging, corroding condemnations of the devil, and the clear convictions of the Holy Spirit. The enemy speaks in generalities, seeking to smear us by a vague sense of failure, uncleanness, confusion, heaviness of spirit. The answer to that is there is 'now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. '

"The Holy Spirit speaks specifically, and His convicting, although rebuking us, is sweet and clean and true and acceptable. He points out some exact and immediate action by which we have temporarily given in to sin. Satan points downward to despair, but the Spirit points upward to cleansings."

"The tempter's suggestions are apt to make one feverish. There is a sure test for ambitious plans. Any trace or taint of fever produced is a pretty sure indication of the enemy's influence. In sharp contrast with this, the Holy Spirit's work always makes us quiet and clear and deliberate. Our Master's touch still has the same power and effect as when He touched the hand of Peter's wife's mother; the fever leaves."

"In nothing terrified by your adversaries" (Philippians 1:28).

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Why must the subject of the “old man” so often arise? It slumbers not and ever flies its colors and therefore, we are to “see then that you walk circumspectly” (Eph 5:15) of its vices (Co 3:5-9); for it must be through these that the Enemy vies for position, which can interrupt but not inhibit our progress in Christ (Eph 4:27).

Being prepared to identify the works of our old nature does not involve an unceasing watch, as though it could affect our standing in Christ if missed, but is an urgency to keep it in check as the Spirit often reveals it to us in what we do; He identifies it to us then causes us to allow Him to deal with us in it (Gal 5:17). The works of the old nature are active in varying degrees, depending upon maturity (Eph 5:11-14), and are never completely avoided in our doings (1 John 1:8).

The primary understanding in it all is to realize that it is our ways which indicates our maturity in Christ and this determines the level of our fellowship, in this life, with the Father, but the condition of our fellowship with Him does not affect our acceptance with Him; for our acceptance is determined only by being “accepted in the Beloved” (Eph 1:6). -NC

7-17. ZEAL'S PRECOCITY

"For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge" (Romans 10:2).

It takes more to break inertia than to ease momentum. Misdirected zeal is more easily corrected than inert sloth.

"It is possible, and very humiliating, to be awakened to the fact, though we have had a measure of zeal for the Lord, that we have barely known the things we should have known, nor the behavior that is becoming to us in this marvelous day of grace.

"But it is the love of the Lord Jesus that would lead us on, through the judgment of ourselves and ways, into deeper communion with Himself to be better representatives of Him here in whose likeness we shall soon appear. "

"The snare with zealous, but unprepared and unbroken hearts, is to do the right thing in the wrong way. It is not enough to know the right thing, but I must know the right way of doing it. The latter is not easily learned; the former is the fruit of light; the latter is never acquired but as there is practical grace and love-the activity of the Lord Jesus' nature in me by the Spirit." -J.B.S.

"Denial of the old man is where he is most felt, not where he is least felt; and all the light of Scripture cannot promote growth without self-denial. Here is where most fail, and in this day there is a great deal more zeal to acquire knowledge and intelligence in the wonders of revelation, than to deny the man that has no sympathy with it, nor part in it, but condemnation. "

"Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil " (1 Timothy 3:6).

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We all should be familiar with “the pause”. This involves those times of seemingly emptiness, which for me can last for a day or two. The pause tests us by giving us the opportunity to evaluate where our learning level is concerning our patience and trust; are we going to patiently wait for normalcy, knowing He is still with us, or allow place for wondering and despondency which may hint of dejection?

Similar to the process in which gold is purer after every firing, the Christian “enduring hardness” (2 Tim 2:3) results in “the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 1:7).
-NC

7-18. HIS WAY AND TIME

"That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of Cod." (Colossians 1:10).

When once we see and accept our Father's purpose for our lives to the extent that it becomes our will also, the time and details of His process cease to matter. "Thy will be done" (Luke 11:2).

"It is the knowledge of the Lord Jesus that matures the soul. Our Father chooses His opportunities to teach us these things, and when He has accomplished this work the special communications of His wisdom and love no longer continue, for He desires we should walk by faith, according to what we know we possess in the Lord Jesus. Hence our path is in company with a Christ much better known, and in much closer communion with Him.

"After receiving the instruction, we have to return to the ordinary activity of a life of responsibility, and to those relationships with our brethren in which love is developed and exercised, as it is put to "The proof, either in the assembly or in individual relationships."

"Patience is the secret of it all. We want to hurry God sometimes, but we never can. We find this at times in the desire for restoring a soul-a right thing to want, but God must first go to the bottom. "Patience requires thorough confidence in God. He is working His own purposes meanwhile, but I must follow Him, not go before Him. If I am 'strengthened. . . unto all patience,' I shall be longsuffering toward others."

"Strengthened. . . according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering" (Colossians 1:11).

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7-19. LOVED, TO LOVE

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ " (Ephesians 1:3).

His love is mine when I know what He did for me; my love is His when I know who He is to me-He who is Love, is my Life. He loved, and died; that I might live, and love. "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine" (Song of Solomon 6:3).

"My Father, in His grace, has come in and ended my history in the flesh, by the Cross, and now by the Spirit I am brought into association with His Son at His own right hand in heaven.

"The Lord Jesus wins my heart in His humiliation; He satisfies it in His glory. A won heart is not necessarily a satisfied heart. But if a heart is truly won by the Lord Jesus it never will be satisfied without Him. No heart that is won is ever satisfied but in the company of the One who won it. Absence does not 'make the heart grow fonder'! You only discover in absence what you have gained in presence. "

"We talk of difficulties and perplexities. How little the heart is really in concert, in simple concert with the Lord Jesus! He has gone up to the right hand of the Father in greater power than ever, and He is using the elevation that He has gone to, to effect deliverance for me from all things that would break fellowship between Him and me. And He uses His Word to keep me from all that would interfere with that blessed communion. "

"Thy Word have I hidden in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee " (Psalm l l 9:11).

7-20. CALVARY'S SECRET

"Partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world" (2 Peter 1:4).

We are to find out in Romans 6, through the gracious teaching of the Spirit of truth, all that happened to the Lord Jesus there on the Cross. Then we will know our own position and standing, since we were judicially in Him there.

"Have you ever thought about God's thought about you, that you are 'to be conformed to the image of His Son'? 'It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him' (Romans 8:29; 1 John 3:2).

"This cannot fail. The Lord Jesus presses on our hearts that He brings us into association with Himself. He 'hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus' (Ephesians 1:3). He puts us in this position answering perfectly to His nature, and with a nature to enjoy it."

"He imparts to us of Himself in order to qualify us for Himself. "

"Not only is my blessing in heaven, but I need the Lord Jesus' power to enable me to rise above the sense of my infirmity down here; for this world, instead of contributing to me, makes me feel my weakness and need, and that I must rise out of it to find and enjoy my blessing.

"The very infirmity which this evil age makes me conscious of makes me draw upon the power of Christ, as the One outside it, passing into the heavens, so that I take pleasure in the very infirmity which is exposed here, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. "

"God forbid that I should glory, except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ " (Galatians 6:14).

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7-21. COUNTER-BALANCED

"Having therefore, brethren, boldness enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus" (Hebrews 10:19).

Personal knowledge of and fellowship with our risen Lord Jesus is counter-balanced by personal knowledge of and fellowship in the death of the Cross. The principle of balance prevents our slipping past the Cross and pushing into His presence.

"Where do you dwell? 'Come and see. They came. . . and abode with Him' (John 1:39). The highest satisfaction He can have is that we should be at home with Himself. He has removed the distance from His own side.

"If you believe that, you say, I will approach Him. That is one thing. The next thing is, His love is so great He delights to have your company. It is not that you will feel yourself out of place there-you will be there in all the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ."

"Our Father delights in having us with Himself. Love yearns to satisfy itself about me. It is not only that I can go in, but a much greater thing—my Father, in all His majesty and glory, can come out, All is equipoise. Not only have I entree, but I am shaped to the grandeur of the scene, conformed to the glory of God. Not admitted like a stranger, but changed into the same image; not to equality but similarity; transformed into moral correspondence." -J.B.S.

"If we are not with Him where He is, we cannot be for Him where He is not. We must be inside the veil to be outside the camp."

"Let us draw near with a true heart in fall assurance of faith " (Hebrews 10:22).

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7-22. GUARDED AND GUIDED

"My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).

How difficult it is for the hungry heart to adjust to the Father's pace. He is so deliberate and thorough, while our need is so pressing and paramount. Apart from never being behind time, our Father is an eternity ahead of time! We have but to see in the Word what He has accomplished on our behalf in the Lord Jesus, and then quietly rely upon Him, "according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3).

"God will perfect that which concerns His own; and even where there are mistakes and failures, as alas! there are in abundance with all of us, the Lord's rich grace abounds over all, and actually takes occasion from our very mistakes to shine out all the more brightly-though, assuredly, the mistakes and failures must produce their own painful and humiliating results.

"It is the remembrance of this which alone can give calm repose in the midst of the most discouraging circumstances. If we take the eye of faith off God, our souls must soon be overwhelmed. It is our privilege to be able, in our little measure, to thank God in view of everything, and take refuge in His eternal counsels, which must be made good despite all the unbelief of man, and all the malice of Satan.

"May God give us to increasingly know Him! If we had one end."only to learn what we are, we should surely be cast down, and sink into despondency; but His object in giving us a knowledge of ourselves and of His grace, is to give us an expected end."

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life" (Psalm 23:6).

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IMITATING IS IMITATION

"For to me to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:2l).

Once we learn the truth of our union with the Lord Jesus, and of the Holy Spirit's indwelling, any attempt to imitate Christ will be seen for what it is: unscriptural, and futile.

"Our Father is going to teach us, mainly through personal failure, that the life we live is the life of our Lord Jesus alone. The Christian life is not our living a life like Christ, or our trying to be Christ-like, nor is it Christ giving us the power to live a life like His; but it is Christ Himself living His own life through us; 'no longer I, but Christ.'"

"The end of Christ's incarnation, death and resurrection was to prepare and form a holy nature and frame for us in Himself, to be communicated to us by union and fellowship with Him; and not to be able to produce in ourselves the first originals of such an holy nature by our own endeavors."

"The believer's true education is in the growth of Christ within. The Church's real ministry is not multitudinous public services, so-called, but the forming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the lives of His people; the reproduction of Christ; epistles made alive by the Holy Spirit, to be seen and read of all men." -C.A.F.

"There is no answer to infidelity like the life of the Lord Jesus displayed through the Christian. Nothing puts the madness of the infidel, and the folly of the superstitious more to shame and silence than the humble, quiet, devoted walk of a thorough-going, heavenly-minded, and divinely-taught believer."

"But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you" (2 Thessalonians 3:3).

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7-24. TERMINAL CONDITION–ETERNAL POSITION

"Ye have put off the old man with his deeds" (Colossians 3 9).

Sometimes our Christian life and love are divided between the two Adams. It may be 60-40 in favor of the Last Adam, still it is shared. But the Lord Jesus paid it all, gave His all, deserves our all, requires all, because He is our ALL. Ours is to be total separation-death to the old, life in the New.

"Our Father has removed everything to His own satisfaction, and you learn in the first eleven verses of Romans 5 the terms He is on with you. It means much to the heart of the believer to know that he is received on the ground of another Man who perfectly glorified God.

"We are accepted in Him, the Beloved. God has changed His man, and you are never happy until you believe that and are able to say, I have, too. If you do not see that God has changed His man you will never change your man."

"The only way to freedom is to leave Adam for Christ-to change your man; then it is 'not I, but Christ liveth in me' (Galatians 2:20). There are two sides; one, that you are cleared from the old in the eye of God in the Cross; the other, that you are now new in Christ risen. 'For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death' (Romans 8:2). The old is held in the place of death as you walk in newness of life in the Spirit."

"And have put on the new man, that is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him." (Colossians 3:10).

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Man reaching up to God is religion; God reaching down to man is grace. What God is to man is more significant than what man is to God. Since He values us equal to His Son, the priority in all things is to focus all on Him and His Son, because Their love for us is infinitely preeminent to ours for Them. -NC

LOVE'S ETERNALITY

"The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God " (2 Thessalonians 3:5).

Between the activity of the old man and the accusations of Satan, we often find it very difficult to believe and understand that God is lovingly and legally on our side, both now and forever.

"One of the great secrets of growth is the looking upon the Lord Jesus as gracious. How strengthening it is, to know that He is at this moment feeling and exercising the same love and grace towards me as when He died upon the Cross for me. -J.N.D.

"I have got away from grace if I have the slightest doubt about God's love for me. I shall then be saying, I am not happy, because I am not what I should like to be. But, dear friend, this is not the question: the real question is, whether God is what we shall like Him to be, whether the Lord Jesus is all we could wish.

"If the consciousness of what we are in ourselves, has any other effect than, while it humbles us, to increase our adoration of what our Father is, we are off the ground of pure grace. The immediate effect of such consciousness should be to make our hearts reach out to God and to His grace as abounding over all."

"May our hearts get such a lesson in the love of the Father, that, instead of being depressed by trying circumstances, we may know that we are the objects of this wonderful love, and are being educated into it by the only One who knew it in all its power as He walked here below through this wilderness world."

"To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19).

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TREASURED TRIALS

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty' hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time" (I Peter 5:6).

The Blesser sends trials because the trials are blessings. Most covet the "blessing" of having the trial removed.

"I find the brightest summer is when the winter has been longest and most severe. The wheat, the best grain, passes a winter in the soil. The bud, the blossom, or fruit, most fragrant of Christ, is the one which nobody knows what it cost me but Himself; and where one had hardly noticed it; like the beautiful wild flowers in the hedgerow, contending with bushes and boars, to shod their fragrance on the unthankful or unthinking traveler going by."

"I think we are sometimes ready to say to the Lord— Could you not have taught me without subjecting me to so much sorrow and humiliation? The answer I have had is, You could not be effectually taught any other way. "The Lord knows the nature of the obstacle in me which He has to overcome: a less efficient hand might think that it could be dealt with in some other way.

"A weakness be it bodily or otherwise, is sometimes allowed to continue in order that there may be dependence, and when there is dependence, the weakness becomes a gain; the grit-the trying thing-is superseded by a pearl of great price." -J.B.S.

"The God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect [mature], establish, strengthen, settle you " (1 Peter 5:10).

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God's blessings to your Family this Holiday season! God Be Blessed!!

THE REAL ENEMY

"For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14).
Hatred for others comes easy for some; but to fully hate one's old man comes hard for all. The Lord Jesus loves us too much to allow us to go on loving ourselves.

"The Christian's victory is not over others, but over himself. His sword is drawn, not to slay his fellowman, but to slay himself. He wins by losing. He triumphs by being defeated. He lives by dying. His crown is a crown of thorns. His throne is a Cross. His weapon is not strength but weakness.

"His victory is not found in establishing his own cause but in establishing that of his fellow-men; the poor, the sick, the disinherited, the brokenhearted, the wayward, the lost. This may be foolishness to men. But we must not forget that 'the foolishness of God is stronger than men' (1 Corinthians 1:25). -F.J.H.

"How blessed it is to know, and at the same time how solemn to realize, that the sin of the child of God is against his Father, and that it is the love of relationship that is called into exercise about it-love which acts towards us 'for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness' " (Hebrew. 12:10).

"It is impossible that He should treat it lightly; and it will be impossible in the end for any one of His own to treat it lightly either. Grace abides towards us; and because grace abides, sin cannot be permitted to have sway over "The objects of it." -W.K.

"Let not sin, therefore, reign. . . " (Romans 6:12).

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ALL GLORY TO GOD

"Whether, therefore, ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God " (1 Corinthians 10:31).

The present and eternal ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Son; the past, present, and future ministry of the Son is to glorify the Father. Our life and ministry will bring glory to our Father to the extent that we abide in the Son, and are controlled by the Holy Spirit.

"When one's ministry or outreach flows from close communion with the Father, one's influence and moral authority will be recognized. Moreover, such a workman is not carried beyond what he has received from the Lord, so that his ministry finds sanction in hearts without any pressure.-J.N.D.

"The object of all Christian life and ministry, of whatever kind, must surely be to bring glory to God. Any lesser motive is inferior. If this were kept in the forefront of our thinking and praying, it would have two beneficial results. The hectic strain would be taken out of our lives and service, and spontaneous fruitfulness would follow.

"We can aim to meet the needs of people as a primary objective, and fret because so many of our efforts prove abortive. We may secretly pride ourselves on our ability to minister, or on our efficient service, and reap nothing but frustration. It is only when our whole outlook is made radiant by His glory, because we are hungry to do His will and that only, that our activities will be quickened into new life, and others be truly blessed." -J.C.M.

"He [Abraham]. . . was Strong in faith, giving glory to God" (Romans 4:20).

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FREE-BORN

"For I through the law died unto the law, that I might live unto God " (Galatians 2:19, ASV).

No true believer expects the Law to give life, yet many expect it to govern life. Too few realize that their death on the Cross separated them from the entire principle of law, and that their resurrection united them to the Lord Jesus, "full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).

"All of the Lord's commands to me are according to the new nature I already have. He is my life, and all His words are the expression of that life. Therefore when His words are given to me, they only give me the authority to do what my new nature likes to do. 'A new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in Him and in you" (1 John 2:8). -J.N.D.

"Does our Father mock us by bidding us do what He knows we are unable to do? No! He gives commands we cannot perform in our strength, that we may know what we ought to request from Him." "Legalism is an effort to shape oneself to given laws or rules. Seeking to urge oneself into conformity to law, the old man is before the eye, and satisfaction is felt according as there is conformity to a given standard.

"The moment legality is sanctioned, it must be with reference to that which needs to be made subject. This is not Christian, because as believers we are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, against which there is no law."

"Stand fast, fast, therefore, in the liberty with which Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage " (Galatians 5:1).

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The heavenly position of where the believers are is what sustains them in their earthly condition when they are continually mindful of their total dependence on God. It is when we think of ourselves “more highly than we ought to think” (Rom 12:3) that we decrease the continuity in our God-dependence.

The consistency of how we should be in our condition will be succinctly commensurate with the level of our mindfulness concerning God-dependence. The question is not how strong are we but, how strong is He? God desires us to know that He has set everything so that we need not to look within ourselves for sustenance, as if to have faith in ourselves, but to realize that since we have trusted in Him for the receiving of our salvation, we can only trust Him for the retention of the same (John 10:28, 29).

God has brought us to faith in union with Himself (John 6:44) and it is Him, not ourselves, which is “able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory” (Jude 1:24). Your position in God is your place with Christ, because “your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3). If those who professes to be in Christ eventually display a lifestyle of sin, it will become obvious they have never entered into faith (1 John 2:19).

Therefore, “as He is” (our position), “so are we in this world” (our condition); 1 John 4:17.
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LET GOD BE GOD!

"Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God" (Philippians 1:11).

It goes without saying that Christianity is a vertical relationship with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. But are your arrows pointing up, or down? "Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually" (Hebrews 13:15).

"Grace is the Father's favor to man according to His own heart, and for His own glory. If the need of man were the sole measure of His grace, then man only would be thought of, the work of the Lord Jesus would be simply for man, and the power of God expended merely in rescuing man and securing his relief. Man would be the object and end of it all, and not God." -J.B.S.

"When I have rest in the Lord Jesus, then I begin to find all my joy and strength in Him, and I occupy myself with Him. This is the foundation of true devotedness. I do not become devoted in the true sense until I have found my rest in Him. I am, up to this, rather looking to receive from Him. I am more an object to myself; but when I find how fully I am an object to Him, then my heart is at liberty to make Him its object, He having made me His." -J.B.S.

"When the advantages of grace do not call forth praise to the Father, when He is not prominently before the soul, as the source of everything possessed, then the gifts take the place of the Giver in the heart, and must soon lose their vigor and value like flowers cut away from their roots."

"The great question is, not whether I see a certain thing, and how it stands in relation to me, but do I see it as my Father sees it, and as it stands in relation to Him?"

"Unto him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without end. Amen" (Ephesians 3:21).

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SERVlCEABlLITY

"Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to test you, as though some strange thing happened unto you" (1 Peter 4:12).

The joy of sowing is exceeded only by the joy of harvesting; and yet both sowing and reaping are a matter of death.

"If we follow and note the history and ways of any true servant of the Lord, we shall see, that on the one side they, like Moses on the Mount, or Paul in Arabia, are entranced with the brightness and most marvelous display of divine glory; yet on man's side, those who know most of the divine ways, suffer most because of the indifference of those who have professed to be the Lord's people.

"It is nowhere admitted in Scripture that a servant can be merely the herald of the light of God's grace; that is, that he should only have the joyful side of service. For every real servant, be he evangelist, teacher, or anything else, there must be the side of suffering, burden, and humiliation."

"We must bear in mind that, while it is the Father's purpose, in His dealings with Job, to vindicate His own estimate of His servant; it is, at the same time, shown us how He educates or disciplines that servant so as to render him worthy of that estimate."

"In every trial, however gloomy, there are gleams of light and relief; but full deliverance is often delayed by our anxiety to obtain it. God Himself, and not the deliverance, is to be the satisfaction of His servant; consequently the deliverance is often postponed until we are without prospect or expectation of it; and then it may be accorded in a manner so transcendently beyond our conception, that we must see and understand the love and interest which surrounded us during the whole period of our trial."

"But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy" (1 Peter 4:3)

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NO HUNGER–NO GROWTH

"Let us go on and get past the elementary stage. . . advancing steadily toward the completeness. . . that belongs to spiritual maturity" (Hebrews ;6:1, Amp.).

The birth truths of Romans 1-5 are not meant for our spiritual growth. The growth truths of Romans 6-8 are presented for our spiritual development and maturity. The Reformation brought back the birth truths, but the Cross and the Life truths are necessary for our growth.

"So many rest content with the thought that their sins are pardoned, and that they are in the path of life, but know nothing of a personal attachment to the risen Lord Jesus Christ as their life, or of faith that lives in the invisible and walks with the Father.

"With many this is the consequence of the hopelessness that came from the failure of their utmost efforts to live as they
desired. They struggled in their own strength; they lost heart, they went back. The profession of faith is not cast away; religious habits are kept up; but there is nothing to show that they have entered or are seeking to enter the Holiest to dwell there.

"The power of the world, the spirit of its literature, and temptations of business and pleasure, all unite to make up a religion in which it is sought to combine a comfortable hope for the future with the least possible amount of sacrifice in the present." -A.M.

"Struggle and effort in themselves will never secure blessing, but by leading to despair and complete self-disgust they serve a divine purpose in the experience of the soul. I would rather see a soul in honest exercise, however legal he was, than see the light and careless acceptance of divine truth. I do not think God gives anything without preparing us for it by making us feel the need and value of it. It is a divine principle that 'He satisfieth the longing soul' (Psalm 107:9)." -C.A.C.

"He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger" (Deuteronomy 8:3).

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The doing of the will of God centers more on passivity than activity; passive on our part and active on His. Because our Adamic nature is a leaven which unavoidably mixes with what we do, the doing of God’s will on our part is in yielding to His Spirit to work through and by us into bringing about the Father’s desires concerning everything in our lives.

When we “yield” ourselves to God (Rom 6:13), it is the new self (new man), not the old self (old man) that we present to Him and through this new nature we realize the substance of the doing is not of us but the Spirit and thus, He has His way; “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man” (Eph 3:16).

W.J. Hocking’s comment adds some light to the issue: “Man had no life from which the Father could expect anything and so he gave a new life in His Son, that He may produce it. Do I find sins rather? He is the propitiation for our sins. I believe that and enter into fellowship”.

“Why do you find fear and torment when you find sin in yourself? Cannot you trust that love? Have you had the Father on your neck in your rages (Luke 15:20). You must know the love your Father has for you and then you know Him. His Son is your righteousness; why should you not have rest? “As He is, so are we in this world.”

“The effect of grace is that we should feel sin and know it’s blotted out (Acts 3:19) in Him, as well as our old life (old man). “The glory thou hast given Me I have given them . . . that the world may know that . . . thou hast loved them, as thou hast loved Me” (John 17:22, 23). “There is no fear in love.” It is a matter of fellowship. “Perfect love casteth out all fear.”
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FROM LAW TO LIFE

"Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24).

As sinners, the law revealed our need of deliverance from the penalty of sin; as believers, the law reveals our need of deliverance from the power of sin.

"Our Father knows that we are weakness incarnate; that we can do nothing. The trouble is that we do not know it. He must bring us all to the place where we see that we are utterly weak and helpless.

"The more we try to keep the law the more our weakness is manifested and the deeper we get into Romans Seven, until it is clearly demonstrated to us that we are hopelessly weak. The Father knew it all the time, but we did not, and so He has to bring us through painful experiences to a recognition of the fact."

"'It is God who worketh in you' (Philippians 2:13). Deliverance from law does not mean that we are free from doing the will of our Father. It certainly does not mean that we are going to be lawless. Quite the opposite! What it does mean however is that we are free from doing that will as of ourselves.

"Being fully persuaded that we cannot do it, we cease trying to please God from the ground of the old man. Having at least reached the point of utter despair in ourselves so that we cease even to try, we put our trust in the Lord Jesus to manifest His resurrection life in and through us, 'that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit' (Romans 8:4)."

"What would be effected by the law, if all its commands and precepts were carried out and maintained? It would form man in the flesh; it would make Adam what he ought to be for God in the world. The law would form Adam in us." -C.A.C.

"I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord" (Romans 7:25).

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In my earthly condition, which is where I am a partaker of the sufferings of Christ (2 Cor 1:5, 7), I am encouraged and comforted the most in the knowledge and understanding of my Father’s omniscience, because this means there is nothing in my life that will occur without His foreknowledge and that even my thoughts do not escape His pondering. Regardless of what arises, God knows my choices and has already planned out the day for me (Prov 3:6, Psa 1:6; 37:23); “not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace” (2 Tim 1:9).

The direction and care of our Father never involves punishment but rather, loving chastisement (Heb 12:6) and we are also comforted to realize He knows it is never our intention to displease Him. Is there ever any thought or occurrence that God does not know about beforehand? Regardless of the believer’s thoughts, feelings and actions, along with all which occurs without, they have already been known and it has already been pre-planned to “work together for good to them . . . who are the called according to His purpose.” (Rom 8:28).

It is also a great motivation to realize that we can work towards understanding that it can be our goal not to allow anything to disappoint us, esp. in our regrets and failures because mistaken choices are acceptable while maturing in Christ and disappointments anywhere else evidences that we have put our security into something which is of ourselves or another. But when the Lord causes us to experientially understand our eternally secured assurance in His Son, the Romans eight-twenty-eight promise will continually draw us from dissatisfaction and disappointment.
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OUR FATHER, UNTRUSTWORTHY?

"The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants; and none of them who trust in him shall be desolate" (Psalm 34:22).
We can only trust our Father to the degree that we know Him. And He only reveals Himself to us by His means. That is by the Word, by the Spirit, and hence by the Son–in that sequence.

"Could it be possible that God would so love an individual as to give His only Son to die for him and still love him to the extent of following him with the pleadings and drawings of His grace until He has won that soul into His own family and created him anew by the impartation of His own divine nature, and then be careless as to what becomes of the one He has thus given His all to procure?" -L.S.C.

"A life of patience intervenes between the day of illumination and the day of glorification. I am not to count on a path of pleasure–a path of ease–a path of prosperity–on being more distinguished tomorrow than today; but I am to count on a path of patience. And is not there glory in that? Yes, there is companionship with the Lord Jesus Christ." -J.G.B.

"Let my circumstances be what they may, if I can see them ordered for me unfailingly by One in whom infinite wisdom, power, and goodness combine, and whose love toward me I am assured of, my restlessness is gone, my will subjected to that other will in which I can but acquiesce and delight." -F.W.G.

"We are called to fellowship with God, and fellowship means common happiness, common thoughts, common trust. The Father's delight is in His Son; and we have fellowship with Him in that. The Son's delight is in the Father, and we have fellowship with Him in that. So our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus, Christ." -J.N.D.

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths" (Proverbs 3:5, 6).

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HIDDEN TO REVEAL

"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16).

As we walk in the Spirit, worship in the Spirit, and pray in the Spirit, we shall come to know, not the Spirit, but the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus explicitly said, "He (the Comforter) shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you" (John 16:14, 15)

"What is it to 'walk in the Spirit' (Galatians 5:16)? It is to walk in communion with the Father, in dependence upon the Spirit, having the Lord Jesus as my one object. What held the attention of Stephen, 'full of faith and of the Holy Spirit' (Acts 6:5)? Two things: the Word of God on earth, and the Christ of God in heaven (Acts 7:55)."

"To walk in the Spirit is not self-occupation, nor even occupation with the Spirit. Walking according to the Spirit is occupation with the Lord Jesus. When the believer looks to the Lord Jesus, depends upon Him, draws all he needs from Him–if the Lord Jesus is his all, then the believer walks in the Spirit." -A.C.G.

"To be Spirit-controlled does not mean the loss of free-agency. A free agent acts as he pleases, and the Spirit-controlled individual pleases to act in accordance with the mind and will of the Spirit." -A.McC.

"'I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not (in no way) fulfill the lust of the flesh' (Galatians 5:16). It might be objected, if a Christian were not under the restraint of the law that his life might be careless. The 'no way' of our verse forbids such a notion." -H.F.W.

"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2) .

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ON TO MATURITY

"That I may know him" (Philippians 3:10).

"The one unchanging factor on this earth is the Word of God. It is upon the written Word, and in the Living Word, that the Christian life is to be established. Yet there are Christians throughout the world who are seeking to get along on the basis of questionable blessings, and fluctuating self-centered experiences.

"How many rest on the initial step of the new birth, 'Begotten again. . . of incorruptible seed through the word of God' (1 Peter 1:23), and fail to press on to know 'Begotten. . . by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. . . unto an inheritance' (1 Peter 1:3).

"If our hearts are really true to Him we may be assured He will lead us on in the knowledge of Himself just as fast as we are able to advance. He knows how much we can take in, and He does not fail to minister to us the very food that is suitable to our present need. We may sometimes feel inclined to be impatient with ourselves because we do not make more rapid progress, but we have to learn to trust the Lord with our spiritual matriculation.

"If our eyes are upon the Lord Jesus, and we follow with steadfast hearts as He leads us, we shall find that He leads us by the right way and brings us through all the exercises we need in order to form our souls in the appreciation of Himself, and of all those blessed things which are brought to pass in Him. We have to trust Him all the way through, and to learn increasingly to distrust ourselves." -W.N.

"The enemy will encourage you to do anything but carry out the systematic, Spirit-taught study of the Bible. He will give religious experiences, feelings and pious thoughts–all apart from God's Word. Do not be deceived. The Scriptures are our only sustenance–there are no substitutes." -J.B.

"Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord" (Hosea 6:3).

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PRAYER PREPARATION

"He shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and fit for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work" (2 Timothy 2:21).

"Prepared unto every good work"–especially prayer.

"It does not follow that because a thing is the will of God, He will necessarily lead you to pray for it. He may have other burdens for you. We must get our prayers from God, and pray to know His will. God was dealing with Hudson Taylor for fifteen years before He laid upon him the burden of definite prayer for the foundation of the China Inland Mission (now the Overseas Missionary Fellowship).

"Our Father is not in a hurry. He cannot do things with us until we are trained and ready for them. We may be certain He has further service, further burdens of faith and prayer to give us when we are ready for them." -J.O.F.

"In the true 'prayer of faith' the intercessor must spend time with the Father to appropriate the promises of His Word, and must permit himself to be taught by the Holy Spirit, whether the promises can be applied to this particular case. He remains in the presence of God, till He, by His Spirit, awakens the faith that in this particular matter the prayer has been heard." -A.M.

"In praying there are two alternatives set before us. The one, prayer as a means by which we get from heaven what we need. The other, prayer as infinite grace of God, lifting us up into His fellowship and love, and then when He has thus brought us to Himself, bestowing upon us the blessing we need. In the former case, the gifts that I can receive through prayer are the chief things. In the latter, God and His love, and fellowship with Him, and the surrender of the suppliant to His glory and His will is the supreme objective." -A.M.

"Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving" (Colossians 4:2).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

“Labor to Rest”: Heb 4:11

Our work is not to come from the strength of the “old man”, which is our “own works”, but from the Spirit in the inner man or “new man” (Eph 3:16); “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord” (Zec 4:6). We are to love God “with all our strength”; --“which answers to the phrase in Deuteronomy 6:5, "with all thy might"; “that is, with the greatest vehemency of affection, in the strongest expressions of it, and with all the strength of grace (Spirit) a man has” (parentheses mine) –J Gill.

God used six days to create everything, and then on the seventh day from the beginning of the first day He rested. That is, He rested or ceased from creating and will never need to repeat it, for “God ended His work which He had made” (Gen 2:2).

The believer rests from his “own works” in order to rest in His works; “For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His (Heb 4:10). God, through His Spirit and in the “acceptance” of His Son (Eph 1:6) uses us to do His will in His strength and this is exemplified by the understanding of “entering into His rest” (Heb 3:11, 18, 19; 4: 1-11).

God did not expect Adam, Israel or the rest of mankind to learn to live this life completely free of any thoughts or actions of sin; “according to His own purpose” and “after the counsel of His own will (2 Tim 1:9; Eph 1:11), He has chosen, from eternity past, to allow our sin nature to remain (Rom 7) “until the redemption of the purchased possession” (Eph 1:14; Rom 8:23) and therefore, it stands to reasonable assumption that the believer cannot possess the sin source without ever being affected by it.

We are to be aware of its presence and “live circumspectly . . . redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Eph 5:15, 16). We are also to be mindful that “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Rom 5:20). The key is not to seek in ourselves that for which is to be found only in God's Son, which is righteousness, and since it is imputed to us from Christ (1 Cor 1:30), it is what our Father regards in us in place of the unrighteousness in our "old man".
-NC

REST VIA STRUGGLE

"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).

Hard as it is for the believer to finally come to rest concerning his spiritual birth, it seems to be even more difficult for him to simply rest in the Lord Jesus for his life and service.

"There are two stages in the Christian life. The one in which, after conversion, a believer seeks to work what God would have him do. The second, in which, after many a painful failure, he ceases from his works, and enters the rest of God, there to find the power for work in allowing the Father to work in him.

"It is this rest from their own work which many Christians cannot understand. They think of it as a state of passive and selfish enjoyment, of still contemplation which leads to the neglect of the duties of life, and unfits for that watchfulness and warfare to which Scripture calls. What an entire misunderstanding of God's call to rest!

"Truly to rest in God is to yield oneself up to the highest activity. We work, because He worketh in us both to will and to do (Philippians 2:13). As Paul says of himself, 'I labor, striving according to his working who worketh in me with might' (Colossians 1:29). Entering the rest of God is the ceasing from self-effort, and the yielding of oneself in the full surrender of faith to God's working." -A.M.

"Not only does the Lord Jesus live in us, but He becomes the motivating Object of our life as Christians. The law is no longer our motive or rule of life. It is entirely displaced by a Person, and that Person 'the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.' Henceforth the soul has a new center and source--it is no longer self-centered, but Christ-centered." -C.A.C.

"Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:29).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

BELOVED ENEMY - Miles J Stanford

"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree" (Galatians 3:13).

The legal Christian considers the law to be his best friend who will enable him to live righteously. But in reality the law, in the hands of the Holy Spirit, is his beloved enemy. The Spirit's purpose is to bring the well-meaning believer down into defeat, wretched and ready to realize, "I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord" (Romans 7:25).

"It is perhaps the most alarming symptom of decay to be seen amongst evangelical believers today, that so many have accepted (at any rate mentally) the fact that they cannot be justified before God except by the sacrifice for sin once made for all upon Calvary, proceed to build a new legal code by which to live, and seek to be sanctified by their own efforts and endeavors.

"The more conscientious, when faced with the failure of this scheme of things, become the victims of the condemnation of the 'accuser of the brethren'; and take their place among the great company of Christian men and women who are constantly beset with doubts and fears, and who, often in spite of intense activity in the cause of the Gospel, are living in the conscious bitterness of defeat. " -J.C.M.

"The law cannot be broken or divided. It stands as a unit. To undertake any part of it is to be committed to it all. Nothing can be more unreasonable or more unscriptural than to borrow some portions from the law system, either that of Moses or of the millennial kingdom, and, at the same time, reject other portions. He who will choose the law must, to be consistent, do the whole law (Romans 10:5), and if he should break it at one point, he is guilty of all (James 2:10)." -L.S.C.
"The law was our schoolmaster. . . . But after faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster" (Galatians 3:24, 25).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

It has been said that “the unsaved needs deliverance from the guilt of sin and the saved needs deliverance from the dominion of sin”. Though the believer has trusted Christ for his place in salvation, there remains the need for learning to trust Him for our walk in salvation.

This is summed up in understanding that our acceptance with the Father will always be solely upon our being “accepted in the Beloved” (Eph 1:6), and that His divine attributes (holiness, righteousness and justification) cannot be produced but only vicariously possessed—in the possessing of Christ. All of these godly attributes are part of us being “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4); thus, they come not from us, but from Him in us through His Spirit and we can only witness-bearers to this.
- NC

CHURCH PLIGHT

"For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God" (Acts 20:27).

In regard to the external Cross, the obvious fact is that "Christ died for our sins." As to the internal Cross, while not so obvious, it is still a fact that we are to be "always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (2 Corinthians 4:11).

"Popular Fundamentalist theology has emphasized the utility of the Cross rather than the beauty of the One who died on it. The saved man's relation to the Lord Jesus has been made contractual instead of personal. The 'work' of Christ has been stressed until it has eclipsed the Person of Christ. Substitution has been allowed to supersede identification. What He did for us seems to be more important than what He did to us." -A.W.T.

"The death of the Lord Jesus was not only an atonement for sins, but a triumph over sin. By faith we see our sins not only on His head for our pardon, but sin under His feet for our deliverance. Multitudes who glory in the outward Cross know nothing of that inward crucifixion which it has also made possible, whereby they are delivered from the power of self and sin, the world, the flesh, and the devil. That they do not know: That their 'old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, so that they should no longer be in bondage to sin' (Romans 6:6)." -G.M.

"We are not only to take by faith the fact that the Lord Jesus died for us to pay the price and penalty of our sins, but we are to appropriate by faith the fact that He also took us to the Cross with Him. In Christ, God put to death our old man that we might be delivered from the power and dominion of sin in our lives. So the story of the pathway of faith begins with Calvary and our identification with the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus." -G.M.

"You were set free from the tyranny of sin" (Romans 6:18, Wey.).

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The believer, Jew or Gentile, now under the “New Covenant” (new in its dispensation, not in its conception from eternity past) has been separated from law; the Jew from the Law of Moses (Josh 8:31) and the Gentile from the “law unto themselves” (Rom 2:14, 15).

It goes from the knowledge of morality to the desire of godliness. This is the difference between having to be told (law) to desire good, due to the lack of an unbroken desire for good (which only proceeds from God; Mat 19:17), and having the continuous desire for being good instilled (grace) within. In this way our actions derive from “newness of spirit (grace), and not in the oldness of the letter (law)” (Rom 7:6).

The transition is from the old commandment of “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Lev 19:18) to the greater work of “a new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John 13:34).
- NC

SACRIFICIAL SERVICE - Miles J Stanford

"For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (2 Corinthians 4:11).

The growing Christian is often accused of passivity by the doing Christian. The Lord Jesus was not passive; the Apostle Paul was not passive; nor is the believer passive who seeks to "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18). Compulsive activity is not necessarily fruitful, as the "works of the flesh" attest.

"The Lord keep you in the freshness of faith in Himself, going forth in His work, not undertaking more than He gives you grace for. I have pressed upon my brethren not to give up their secular employment until the work of the Lord so increased upon them that they must give up one or the other."

"The one who knows best the Father's love will be the best exponent of that love--the best qualified servant for the Father to send on a mission of interest to those who are ignorant of it. Abide in Him. 'The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him' (John 1:18)."

"Under the Mosaic law-system, love for others was to be in the degree in which one loved himself; under grace it is to be in the degree in which the Lord Jesus has loved the believer and given His life for him (1 John 3:16)." -L.S.C.

"Perversion of truth takes its rise from having the eye turned to man, and seeking to make the truth suit him, and not to conform man to the truth; so that the way to resolve this difference is by the simple question, Is it God-ward I am looking, or man-ward?"

"If you only know the work of the Lord Jesus you are prepared to make sacrifices, but if you know Him as your life then you are ready to suffer for Him."

"So then death worketh in us, but life in you" (2 Corinthians 4:12).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

SELF-IMPOSED BURDEN -- Miles J Stanford

"Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1).

Few see and stand upon the fact that our history in Adam ended on the Cross. Our past will plague us until we acknowledge that we are now clear of Adam and safely hidden in the risen Lord Jesus–newly-born creations in Him. One of the penalties of self-occupation is self-pity and corroding remorse.

"Regret for a sinful past will remain until we truly believe that for us in the Lord Jesus that sinful past no longer exists. The man in Christ has only His past and that is perfect and acceptable to the Father. In the Lord Jesus he died, and in Him he rose, and he is now seated in Him within the circle of the Father's favored ones. He is no longer angry with himself because he is no longer self-regarding, but Christ-regarding: hence there is no place for regret."

"The knowledge of our union with the Lord Jesus is what will deliver the believer from all that is low and feeble, and will lift him to a life of joy and peace. To gaze upon our risen Lord in the Father's presence, to whom all things are subject, will transform us into heavenly Christians, dwelling all the day in the Father's presence." -A.M.

"The believer shares the Lord Jesus' Cross ('knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him' Romans 6:6); His death ('ye died and your life is hid with Christ in God' Colossians 3:3); His burial ('we were buried with him by baptism into death' Romans 6:4); His resurrection ('as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we' Romans 6:4); His ascension ('made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus' Ephesians 2:6)." -F.J.H.

"There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).

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LIFELESS LAW - Miles J Stanford

"For if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law" (Galatians 3:21).

Paul devoted two full chapters to establish our freedom from the fallen Adam. Romans Six sets forth our freedom from the dominion of Adamic sin; Romans Seven explains our freedom from Adamic law.
Whereas our liberty was won on the Cross, it is worked out in our daily life and experience by the Holy Spirit. On the Cross, by the Spirit, in the Lord Jesus Christ.

"If ministers and teachers of God's Word would set saints free and establish them in the Gospel, let their preaching and teaching be based upon the sixth and seventh of Romans, the central theme of which is our union with the Lord Jesus in death and burial; and our resurrection and ascension with Him into newness of life; where not the law, but grace, reigneth; where not the letter but the Spirit, moveth the heart and life of the believer. Satan will fight most fiercely against such teaching, but no other will establish the Lord's people."

"If God has declared that we died, we did die. If God has declared us discharged from the law, we are discharged and are hereby God's free children, 'new creatures,' 'created after God in righteousness and true holiness.'

"Our longing for conformity to the image of God's Son shall be confirmed and fulfilled by the Holy Spirit who hath been given unto us. No man can believe he has a right to walk freely and fully in the Spirit until he believes himself to be free from the law." -W.R.N.
"Law cannot give eternal life, nor have, therefore, any control over it." -L.S.C.

"But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held" (Romans 7:6, ASV.).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

Personal Righteousness

We are not to be as Peter when he said, “Depart from me, I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). There may be good desires and tenderness of conscience, but it will run into legality, because of not resting in the favor of the Father. These experiences may be all very useful in their place, but they are not peace. We have peace made and divine righteousness wrought out. I can now look upon my Father without hiding my sin. The way I come to the sense of the immensity of sin is the immensity of the grace that has met it all.

The reality of the presence of the Holy Spirit, who has come down to dwell in us, is most important. He is given as a seal. The Lord Jesus said, “If I go away, I will send Him unto you.” The Comforter brings to me the fullness of His grace, being the witness of accepted righteousness to our hearts. He convicts, or demonstrates of righteousness and that righteousness is mine in the Lord Jesus. He is made unto us righteousness (1 Cor 1:30) and I stand in it because I stand in Him.

The Spirit convicts the world of sin, of unbelief; but His demonstration to me is of righteousness—righteousness wrought out for me, which my Father has accepted. Now He is perfectly free to bless. My thought now is not, I am so full of sin that He cannot bless me; but rather, my Father has accepted the righteousness of His Son and I stand in that (Eph 1:6). We are born of God and as such need something to bring to Him. It is all furnished in the One who is my Christian life (Col 3:4).

There is not only peace as to the past, but I have the Lord Jesus’ standing in the presence of the Father now (Eph 2:13). We stand in the Last Adam and have that Second Man’s position in virtue of our eternal redemption. So sure as I had the first Adam’s place as totally rejected because a sinner, so I have the Last Adam’s place as totally accepted according to the counsel of the Father in the Son (Eph 1:11).

At the end of John 17 we have the Lord Jesus’s righteousness title (v 22) spoken of. He is bound to bless. “I am glorified in them.” He could not bless sin, but now righteousness being perfected, all the purposes of His heat in love can flow out to us, because we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Cor 5:21). Whatever the love of God – the righteousness of God – all that by which He stands in the presence of the Father, because of His work and Person, we have and are blessed in virtue of it all. –G V Wigram

UP HERE! - Miles J Stanford

"And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6).

The spiritual babe has faith for the wondrous fact that he will go to heaven when he dies. The spiritual father has faith for the inexpressible fact that he has died in Christ, and that he is now hid with Him in God.

"When I look at this place, He is not here; and when I look at myself naturally I am not fit for Him. How happy then to know that I belong to the place where He is; and that through grace I am made suited to Him in that new place; so that I set my mind and affections there, as the place where my deepest joys are to be realized." -J.B.S.

"The truth is, we have a position in heaven and the Lord Jesus is now our life there; and if this be not simply enjoyed, there will be an effort to modify the desolation here, and an inability to interpret the various inroads which death makes on us."

"My taste is formed in glory, and there it is nurtured and strengthened, and as it is, so do I find nothing here in keeping with my taste. Association with the Son of Man, the One most perfect, and in every way the most beautiful, develops my new nature, which is the same as His. Where He is, is my home–there I feed and rest; but here, on earth, I am learning to set aside in death everything in me which hinders the manifestation of the life of the Lord Jesus." -J.B.S.

"The reason there is so little growth is that there is so little occupation and fellowship with the Lord Jesus where He is. The glory invites now, instead of the law repelling, and the practical effect is 'changed into the same image.'"

"For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3, ASV.).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

THE LAST IS FIRST - Miles J Stanford

"As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly" (1 Corinthians 15:48).

Christians have a poor self-image simply because they are thinking and looking upon the condemned and crucified first-Adam life within, instead of being occupied with their glorified Last-Adam life above. "Beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory" (2 Corinthians 3:18).

"'If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new' (2 Corinthians 5:17). Does this not mean a new sort of creature, as the Word implies? Do we go back to Adam, the innocent man in the garden in which God set him to dress and keep? No, that would be no creature new in kind. Adam even, pure and good before his fall, was yet of the earth, earthy.

"Is the Lord Jesus but the first man set up afresh? No, He is 'the second man, the Lord from heaven.' He is a heavenly man, the Last Adam–head of a new race; beginning of a new creation–and you and I who believe are 'in Him,' seen and accepted before the Father 'in His Beloved.' The full image of Him we have not yet: true. That will be ours in the day of His coming. The thing we are!" -F.W.G.

"A sinner in himself, the believer has, by faith, taken upon him the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is 'in Him,' he has been made the righteousness of God in Him. He is 'accepted in the Beloved' (Ephesians 1:6). Faith alone gives him all this comeliness. He has been recreated in the Lord Jesus. This is the beauty of the believer; and he is lovely in the eye of the Lord Jesus. 'So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty; for he is thy Lord, and worship thou him' (Psalm 45:11)." -J.C.B.

"And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (1 Corinthians 15:49).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

MANSION THERE–MISSION HERE - Miles J Stanford

"The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God; and if children, then heirs" (Romans 8:16, 17).

It is the Holy Spirit alone who can draw us from the flesh and its earthly environment. He does it in the practical sense by manifesting to our hearts, via the Word of God, the risen Lord Jesus Christ in our heavenly environment. "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts" (Romans 13:14).

"When the Lord Jesus' love is before you, you find this love is drawing you from darkness to light. He begins by showing His desire for your spiritual advancement, and not by advancing you in earthly position.

"It is beautiful to see that the work of true love is to set aside darkness, or whatever would interfere with fellowship; and therefore it is not esteemed as it ought to be, because we are looking for something on the earth, and the tendency is to judge of His love by earthly gifts or favors down here."

"We have died with the Lord Jesus out of our old Adam position: our old man was crucified with Him. The flesh is in us still indeed, but in us a foreign thing; we are not in it before God, nor identified with it in any wise, but with Him in whom it was never found. We are in Him, as He is and where He is.

"Can we say quite confidently, each for himself, 'Yes, we are identified with Him who represents us there before the eye of our Father–as He is, in whom no spot was ever found nor can be, but perfectness after God's own heart wholly'?
"That is to be in Christ–a new creature. Our rule is, to walk in Him, as being what we really are–heavenly, citizens of heaven, pilgrims and strangers upon earth." -F.W.G.

"Heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ–if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together" (Romans 8:17).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

FROM HERE TO THERE - Miles J Stanford

"But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ" (Philippians 3:7).

When we finally understand that the Lord Jesus is our life, we, with Paul, no longer think in terms of things.

"Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit" (John 15:2).

"One may eat with an appetite and feel revived, but the sense of life or sustainment from the food in the hour of toil, is a far greater and better thing. Thus, you have to learn now that the Lord is with you, however great may be the winds and the waves; and that He is with you to prove to you now the value of the truth about Himself, which He has heretofore taught you. The learning is at one time (head), the proving (heart) at another." -J.B.S.

"Our Father must wean us. Oh, what days and nights of bitter tears we shed when the soul is being weaned from some long enjoyed mercy. Is it that He who gave His Son for us would not indulge us? Is it that our Father would deny us anything? No, but He must wean us, or we shall never know what it is to depend on Him apart from any human or natural intervention."

"The Lord Jesus before our souls in the power of the Holy Spirit–the glorified Lord–is our Father's means for bringing us into conformity with His beloved Son. But then it is through the chastenings of His hand, through the trials and sufferings of our path, that He weans the hearts of His own from other objects, that the Lord Jesus Christ alone may fill the vision of our souls." -E.D.

"It is quite right to obtain a knowledge of Scripture, as to its general meaning. It is well to read and get knowledge, but unless you are in communion with the Lord Jesus, you will not grow in likeness to what you admire, as recorded in the Word."

"And I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord" (Philippians 3:8).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

Wishing everyone the Lord's best Holiday wishes for Christmas!

"RISE UP, MY LOVE" - Miles J Stanford

"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth" (Colossians 3:2).

It is sad to have to say that the present-day Church is so earthy that it is of little earthly good. "Sir, we would see Jesus"! (John 12:21).

"The great failure of the Church was in giving up Paul. 'All. . . in Asia' did not give up evangelical truth but they gave up Paul; anything popular you may have, but not Paul. Why? Because Paul is heavenly." -J.B.S.

"It is essential that a believer have a clear understanding of his position before the Father–his place in the risen Lord Jesus Christ. This alone will give true peace of mind, joy and comfort of heart, strength for conflict and power for service. We will never be able to properly understand or fill our place for God on earth if we do not realize our God-given standing before Him in heaven.

"And never forget that our place before the Father is His gift, and a gift worthy of the Giver; not a gift according to the measure of our worth but a gift intended to display the exceeding riches of the grace of the Giver. The greatness of the Giver then is the measure of the blessings that are mine in the Lord Jesus Christ, not what I am or what I deserve."

"When you see and stand on your heavenly ground, you come to rest, just as the Father rests. You need not worry–only keep on that ground by your attitude of heart. If you are going to worry–if you must worry–worry lest you get down on earthly ground, for that is the ground of worry. Abide above! Heavenly things are in safe keeping–in the keeping of One who is 'far above all.'" -T. A-S.

"For ye have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3, ASV.).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

HEART AFFECTION - Miles J Stanford

"If ye, then, be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God" (Colossians 3:1).

Spiritual hunger and thirst are fulfilled in the Lord Jesus, while at the same time they are enlarged for more of Him. This satisfaction overwhelms all lesser longings. Fleshly yearnings are never fulfilled, and every attempt at such satisfaction soon cloys.

"Do we think of, and rejoice in, our blessings more than in the Person in whom we have them? As to even our doctrinal blessings, there is a wonderful charm about them when they are new to us, and they sustain the soul for a certain time; but when the first joy of them passes away, a settling-down process commences. Every new bit of blessing may seem to put a new bit of life into us, but it gradually loses its luster and power, and we become just ordinary Christians–we make very little progress.

"It is as we take the Lord Jesus by faith into the affections of our hearts that we make spiritual progress. It is as He occupies an enlarged place in our affections that we go on. The head may be filled with general theological information without producing one spark of heart-affection for the Lord Jesus, and the soul remains in a state of spiritual emaciation.

"Many have been misled by thinking that by reading the Bible you become like Christ–transformed; but you will find diligent students of the Word, who may never say anything incorrect in doctrine, yet who never seem to grow in grace and walk in spiritual reality.

"All blessings of this dispensation of grace are wrapped up in a Person, and, by means of the Word of God, we make spiritual progress as our hearts learn to find everything in Him–the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us." -C.A.C.

"He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness" (Psalm 107:9).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

ACCESSIBILITY - Miles J Stanford

"For we. . . worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:3)

Failure to live the Christian life is due to one's utter inability, but it is all governed by the Father. He teaches us to become proficient in failure (within ourselves), in order to bring us to total reliance upon His Son, who is our Christian life. "For to me to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21).

"It is a wonderful moment for the believer when we by faith occupy our standing in the favor of the Father–when we know that we are received by Him in all the acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We do not then think of ourselves, of our worthiness or unworthiness, at all. We think of the Lord Jesus–His perfections, His suitability to divine favor, His infinite acceptance with the Father–and by faith, we have access into the favor of which He is so worthy." -C.A.C.

"To find that we are objects of consideration to the Lord Jesus is an infinite solace, and it brings Him before our hearts in such a way that we are sustained above the consideration of ourselves."

"There is an infinite difference between self-improvement and growing in the Lord Jesus, nourished and cherished by Him. Instead of being elated by our own improvement, or depressed because we cannot effect it, we are to be occupied with the grace and beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ, in which we are thus made to share."

"We cannot be in the presence of the Father in innocence, for we are guilty; so that we must be there in His righteousness, and that place which used to repel us, now forms me into a likeness of itself. I am not tolerated there (as in myself), I am at home; and where the distance was, there is now nearness and attraction." -J.B.S.

"Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God"(Ephesians 2:19)

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

In Spirit-led sharing there is always a principle involved. "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom" (Luke 6:38).

Dig channels for the streams of love, that they may broadly run; for love has overflowing streams, to fill them every one.

But if at any time thou cease these channels to provide, the very fount of love for thee will soon be parched and dried.

For thou must give if thou would'st keep, that good thing from above; ceasing to give, we cease to have–this is the law of love.

"The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you, to the end He may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father" (I Thessalonians 3:12, 13).

Miles J. Stanford; April 1985.

WONDER OF WEAKNESS

"He said to me, My strength is sufficient, for it is only by means of conscious weakness that perfect power is developed" (2 Corinthians 12:9, Wms.).

Our Father does not test our faith so much as He exercises and develops it. In time, He makes us aware of our utter weakness; and, in time, we trust and rest in His all-sufficient strength.

"Until we are carried quite out of our depth, beyond all our own wisdom and resources, we are no more than beginners in the school of faith. Only as everything fails us and we fail ourselves, do we draw upon abiding strength. 'Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee'; not partly in Thee and partly in himself. The devil often makes men strong, strong in themselves to do evil–great conquerors, great acquirers of wealth and power. The Lord on the contrary makes His servant weak, puts him in circumstances that will show him his nothingness, that he may lean upon the strength that is unfailing. It is a long lesson for most of us, but it cannot be passed over until deeply learned. And God Himself thinks no trouble too great, no care too costly to teach us this."

"Faith counts on the Word of God outside and apart from everything and everyone here. When you are in faith your life is centered in the Lord Jesus. The moment the heart is detained by anything here, faith is obstructed. The visible is antagonistic to the invisible. If you walk in the Spirit you will be sensible of this in a moment; the effects and influences of the visible are counter to the invisible. Eve had lost faith when she saw that the tree was good for food, and pleasant to the eyes. If she had kept faith–dependence upon God–she would not have looked, but she had parted with the faith which overcometh the world when she 'saw.' The moment one becomes occupied with the visible one has parted company with faith." -J.B.S.

"Since His power is so glorious, may you be strengthened with strength of every kind, and be prepared for cheerfully enduring all things with patience and longsuffering" (Colossians 1:11, Wey.).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

CROSS PURPOSES - Miles J Stanford

"The Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and guard you from evil" (2 Thessalonians 3:3, R.V.).

When once we see and accept His purpose for our lives to the extent that it becomes our will also, the details of His process cease to matter. "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him" (Job. 13:15).

"The one purpose our Father has in view, in all His ways, is to conform us to the image of His Son. This may explain our perplexities as to the past; it will govern our behavior in the present; it is to be our guide in the future. The chief concern of our Lord is not to instruct us about a multitude of details, not to explain to us the reason for the trials which we are called to pass through. He is working out everything to serve His one supreme aim in manifesting the character of His Son in His saints." -H.F.

"The God-given experiences of the Spirit's working within many a time passes away, and leaves the believer apparently dull and dead. This is only until the double lesson has been fully learned: (1) that a living faith can rejoice in the Living God, even when all feeling and experience appear to contradict the truth (Romans 8:28, 29); and (2) that the Divine life only predominates as the life of the old man is held in the place of death, inoperative (Romans 6:11a). The life of the Lord Jesus is revealed as His death works in us (2 Corinthians 4:11,12), and as in weakness and nothingness we look to Him (2 Corinthians 3:18)." -A.M.

"While our Father is dealing with someone in discipline, when He is applying the Cross in a life, be careful how you sympathize with him. You may be taking sides with him against God. By such sympathy, you may, indeed, draw him away from the work of the Cross."

"For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (2 Corinthians 4:11).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

STAND YOUR GROUND! -Miles J Stanford

"The law is not of faith" (Galatians 3:12).

The law will break you; grace will make you.

"Nothing can be more sure than the steps of one guided by the Spirit of God and the Word of God, and yet nothing more complicated than to have to walk in 'separation' from all that exists around. It is indeed difficult to have to wind one's way through things so perplexing and so complex as the religious systems of our own day. We have to avoid on the one hand organizations formed in imitation of things past (Israel-law), and on the other systems more characterized by anticipation of things future (Kingdom-law). We have to allow that such things were once given by God, and that they will yet again be introduced by Him; while invariably contending that they are positively opposed to His present working by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven." -J.L.H.

"With many Christians, it may be almost thought that the Lord Jesus was but the introduction to Moses. That His death procured the payment of sin's debt, so that the debt being paid, the believer might be in a position to keep the law, and that, accordingly, the law, and not the 'Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,' might be the believer's rule of life." -H.F.W.

"The walk of the believer should ever be the natural result of realized privilege, and not the constrained result of legal vows and resolutions–the proper fruit of a position known and enjoyed by faith, and not the result of one's own efforts to reach a position 'by works of law.' All true believers are a part of the Bride of Christ; hence, they owe Him those affections which become that relation. The relationship is not obtained because of the affections, but the affections flow out of the relationship." -C.H.M.

"For I, through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God" (Galatians 2:19).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

MY FATHER REIGNS! - Miles J Stanford

"Put on the whole armor of God " (Ephesians 6:11a).

My sovereign Father gives me a subservient Satan.

"Our Father has better thoughts for us than a portion here. He is educating us for a blessed and eternal rest, free from evil and all that could cause it, and He is bent on the blessing of His children; and moreover He is bound by His holiness to purge us suitably (though most graciously) for the place He has called us to. How often He lets Satan do this painful work, and try to sift us as Job! But the Father's hand and will are behind it all. He gives His saints up to Satan's hand to a certain point, but only so far as to bring the heart fully to a bearing before Himself." -J.N.D.

"It is a wonderful thing to see the way in which through the overruling power of the Father, the efforts of Satan against His people only bring them out the more distinctly in their own place of blessing."

"We cannot judge God's ways without judging God: we may love Him in His ways, but the moment we judge or question that which He has revealed, we get above God, we make ourselves gods, and we put Him in the place of the creature as subject to us. This brings our souls under the power of everyone that is more clever than ourselves: we are in their hands, and they can do what they please with us.

"Now the devil is more clever than we are. Therefore we ought to keep God ever in His place of God in our souls, lest Satan should make gods of us, and set us judging God Himself. If God be displaced, we get into the place of those who are irresponsible, and as creatures the prey of any more cunning than ourselves." -J.N.D.

"That ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil" (Ephesians 6:11b).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

CHRIST OUR POSITION - Miles J Stanford

"In [this] freedom Christ has made us free–completely liberated us; stand fast then" (Galatians 5:1, Amp.).
We are never going to be able to stand before our Father in prayer and fellowship because we are fit in ourselves. We finally come to see that we are in His presence because of our position in His Son.

"The ground upon which our Father deals with us is grace. Every blessing we receive of Him as His children is undeserved. In all of our spiritual existence we are debtors to the rich, free, sovereign grace of our Father. And what is it we are privileged to enjoy on that ground, when we enter 'into this grace wherein we stand'? We then have a new position, and that position is the glorified Lord Jesus Christ.

"We are not only pardoned, but justified–made righteous; and this is not merely by that which He has done, or by what He has procured or bestows–but in what He is. 'As He is, so are we in this world' (1 John 4:17). The believer must never lose sight of this fundamental truth: that the basis of his fellowship with the Father is not his own personal holiness, or what the Lord Jesus is in him, but his judicial position before the Father, or what the Lord Jesus is for him. He, 'the Lord our righteousness,' is the foundation and source of everything–of walk as well as of position." -E.H.

"Most look to get victory in order to get peace, but it is peace already made by the Lord Jesus' work and risen life that is ours. Conflict we shall find, but we know that the Father is for us, and that makes all the difference." -J.N.D.

"Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us. . . righteousness" (1 Corinthians 1:30).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

SOLITARY SOURCE - Miles J Stanford

"That l may know Him" (Philippians 3:10).

It takes us years of trial and error to finally realize that nothing outside the Lord Jesus Christ can fully satisfy and rejoice our hearts. Joy in Him includes 'the fellowship of His sufferings.' So, 'rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings' (1 Peter 4:13).

"We sometimes have the idea that if we were going on rightly, things would be much smoother here for us. Hardly. There is a discipline to correct us and a discipline to develop us. If you are in a wrong path, as you seek the Lord, you will be corrected; but on the other hand, the more you are set for Him here, the more you will find that there is nothing for you here, though at the same time you are daily finding more in Him. 'We which live are always delivered unto death.' The more you enjoy the Lord Jesus who has been refused here, the more you are practically severed from all here." -J.B.S.

"It is a solemn moment when one who has been going on for years with a flourishing profession wakes up to the fact that his heart is entirely unsatisfied. I believe we have very little idea how natural feelings may be mixed up with what we think is our spiritual joy. Many go on happily because their surroundings are happy, and they have no opposition to speak of–perhaps in a Christian family, or in a happy Christian fellowship. They are carried along by the stream of compatible things around them.

"But anything that outwardly contributes to our joy will sooner or later fail us. Our Father loves us too well to allow us to rest in anything or anyone short of Himself–not even Christian fellowship, or what people call 'the means of grace.' He wants to be so known by us that He becomes the deep eternal spring of satisfaction and joy for our hearts." -C.A.C.

"Give your mind to the things above" (Colossians 3:2).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

HEAVEN, OR EARTH - MIles J Stanford

"Having. . . boldness to enter into the Holiest" (Hebrews 10:19).

We are to draw nigh in faith where we already are in position.

"Instead of the priest coming out to bless, as in Judaism, we are to go in for blessing. There are no barriers now. The Father has removed every hindrance and now it is for me to go in and abide. The teachers of Christendom have practically stitched up the veil which He rent. The rent veil in the Gospels is the Father's coming out, but the rent veil in Hebrews is the believer's going in." -J.B.S.

"Judaism has all the sanction of a divine origin and the splendor of an imposing ritual; yet, for the early Christians, all this was a weight to be laid aside, a useless encumbrance, a positive hindrance. And we have the same hindrance to lay aside today, for Christianity has been perverted into a modified kind of Judaism, in which people are occupied with religious things on earth, and thus hindered from running the race to heaven." -C.A.C.

"Typical of the past, there is a great deal of Judaising in Christianity today. The Ten Commandments have a place assigned to them as the sine qua non, the recognition of which was necessary for true religion while man was in the flesh and under law. To insist on their having that place now tends to bring men into fearful bondage, and to hinder them getting into the full liberty of the children of the Father." -G.V.W.

"Judaism, in its full results, is the manifestation that God is come down to man upon the earth; and this will again be displayed in the millennial days of Israel's blessing. But Christianity is based upon the wondrous fact that man, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, is gone up to the Father into the heavens."

"Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith" (Hebrews 10:22).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

SANS EFFORT - Miles J Stanford

"To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Romans 4:5).

There is no work involved in our receiving the Lord Jesus for life, and there should certainly be no self-effort involved in the manifestation of His life in and through us. The principle is the same, from re-birth to maturity.

"'Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ' (1 Corinthians 15:57). That is grace. That is the test of the real or the counterfeit. Just remember this: any victory over the power of any sin whatsoever that you have to get by working for it is counterfeit. Any victory that you have to get by trying for it is false. If you have to work for your freedom, it is not the real thing, it is not that which the Father offers you in His Son."

"The effortless life is not the will-less life. We use our will to believe, or receive, but not to exert effort in trying to accomplish what only the Father has done. Our hope for freedom from the power of sin is not 'Christ plus my efforts,' but 'Christ plus my receiving.' To receive victory from Him is to believe His Word that solely by grace He is, this moment, freeing us from the dominion of sin. And to believe on Him in this way is to recognize that He is doing for us what we can never do for ourselves." -C.G.T.

"The Father has left us as much dependent on the Lord Jesus' work for our deliverance as for our forgiveness. It is wholly because we died with Him on the Cross, but unto sin and unto the whole legal principle, that sin's power for those in Him is broken."

"Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt" (Romans 4:4).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

UNOBJECTIONABLE OBJECT - Miles J Stanford

"That. . . the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him (Christ)" (Ephesians 1:17).

The object of the Christian life is that we may center in the Object of the Father–His Beloved Son.

"If we go on with the Father, sweet as is the assurance that we belong to Him, yet the uppermost thought will in the long run be Himself. We shall come back to His Person. We shall in our praises weave with them what the Lord Jesus has done, suffered, and won for us; but the primary thought in our hearts is, not what we have gained, however true, but what He has been for us and what He is for us, yes, what He is in Himself." -J.B.S.

"There is usually only occupation with the Lord Jesus for the relief of the conscience, and if so, where does it stop? It stops when the relief is gained. But if He is the object of the heart, you will never be satisfied but in fellowship with Him where He is."

"I know of no arguments, and I am acquainted with no power, that will move the heart to devotedness except the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Himself and His love. It is possible to read books by the score, and to listen to the most faithful and blessed ministry for years on end, and yet never know the Lord Jesus as a present loving Object in heavenly glory. It is nigh impossible to see and know Him there by faith without a resulting intense desire to be wholly devoted to Him here." -C.A.C.

"We have a new Person before us as the Object of our faith and affections; and as we drop ourselves and have the Lord Jesus as our Object, He is formed in us. What has been judicially accomplished at the Cross has its fruition by the Spirit in our souls, and it is by that principle that we grow." -C.A.C.

"For it pleased the Father that in Him (Christ) should all fullness dwell" (Colossians 1:19).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

In the Christian’s life there are two occurrences on which everything hinges: one is a single occurrence which is our regeneration producing our rebirth; the other is an ongoing occurrence involving our “being conformed” (Rom 8:29) which is “being transformed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Cor 3:18).

The primary difficulty in the conforming - transforming process is in our limiting that place of nearness to the Father which He has reserved for us. The agenda of the Adamic nature, which is the same as the Enemies, works against us in attempting to persuade us to accept that its condemnation is to be carried over to us; which condemnation is of the Adamic-life, from which we have been separated, concerning its ruler-ship (Rom 6:6,12, 14; 8:9).

Though the continued presence of the “old man” means that we are still affected (tempted) by it, we are cleared of its guilt and the Father no longer regards us after the life of sin, which He causes us to no longer desire (Gal 5:17; Phil 2:13). How He regards His Son is how He regards us (Eph 1:6) and in this light we need not to allow the presence and persuasions of that condemned nature (Rom 8:3) to place even a scintilla of substance (concerning guilt) between us and the Father, allowing us to "draw near to God" (Jam 4:8).
Bob Hall (NetChaplain)

BIRTH: SAVIOR; GROWTH: SPIRIT -- Miles J Stanford

"Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16).

We receive life by reliance upon the Savior; we grow in that life by reliance upon the Spirit.

"Many think that because of faith they are cleared of everything before God through the Cross, and therefore by faith they are clear of everything in themselves. But that is the error of 'holiness by faith.' The objective (position) is that we are clear before the Father; the subjective (condition) is that we are cleared from ourselves by the growth ministry of the Holy Spirit."

"As you by faith in the positional facts realize that you are in the Father's presence, you will not try to depend upon any sense of His presence. You know His presence because you know that your position in the Christian life is a life of faith in the facts–nothing else. That the Father forces you to live by faith so as to draw you into His presence–not you, by sense, trying to draw Him into yours."

"We are, naturally, suspicious of any offer to make us happy in God. Because our moral sense, our natural conscience, tells us of our having lost all right even to His ordinary blessings. But in the Word of our Father, faith reads our abundant title to be near to Him and happy with Him, though natural conscience and our sense of the fitness of things would have it otherwise. Faith feeds where the moral sensibilities of the natural mind would count it presuming even to tread." -J.G.B.

"The moment we walk by sight we are outside of faith. The Father would never have us outside of faith; hence, even in answering faith, He so answers it that we need it again the next moment, even while we are enjoying the results of it." -J.B.S.

"Faith is. . . the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

Scripture declares that the believer is to “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (Jam 4:7). Resisting the devil or doing anything in our strength will not accomplish the will of God. Only when performed in the Lord’s strength can the Father’s work be accomplished. We are to “be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (Eph 6:10). This involves yielding in non-use of our “own works”, to allow Him to do His work--using us.

What is the difference between resisting the devil and resisting evil? Sin is not an entity, such as an individual who is spirit, but sin is a nature or force; which sinful nature in the believer has been dealt with by Christ, meaning there remains no need to address sin, other than through confession and repenting.

I believe repentance is evidence of a Christian’s true confession (which reveals God’s internal workings; Mat 15:16), which involves putting off sin (Eph 4:22; Col 3:8, 9). To “put off” in this sense does not intend to remove or take off as concerning a garment, but to avoid performing or doing, as in putting off something someone wants you to do. Putting off sin in the believer’s life is done by Christ, through the Spirit using the written Word of God. I believe the process of resisting the devil is best explained in Ephesians 6:10-18 (armor of God) and notice the absence of our strength and the presence of Christ’s.
- NC

RECEPTION AND RESISTANCE - Miles J Stanford

"For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works" (Hebrews 4:10).

Besides the rest of reception, there is also the rest of resistance. Any time there is effort involved in the matter of resisting sin, we can be sure that we are depending to some extent upon the flesh, instead of resting in the finished work of the Cross.

"The question is 'How are we to meet sin?' 'Reckon yourselves dead unto sin.' The moment that you begin to fight with it–no matter how resolutely you may struggle against it–that moment you begin to experience sin as your master. For it is then that we forsake our true position, which is one of freedom from sin as a master.

"Let it be remembered we are to fight 'the good fight of faith,' which consists of resting in our position of freedom, and not in obtaining that position. We are to fight not for it, but from it. He alone has obtained it. It is our Father's free gift. Let us be fully abiding in the One who is Life, and sin when it acts, will find us dead to it." -E.H.

"Calvary is the secret of it all. It is what the Lord Jesus did there that counts, and what He did becomes a growing force in the life of the believer when it is seen, and rested in by faith. This is the starting point from which all godly living must take rise. We shall never know the fact of the Lord Jesus' victory in our lives until we are prepared to count upon His work on the Cross as the source of our personal freedom from the dominion of sin and the old man within. There is no liberty for us that was not first His. The beginning of spiritual growth is faith in that fact."

"Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty with which Christ hath made us free" (Galatians 5:1).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

FROM EXPOUNDER TO EXPONENT - Miles J Stanford

"Now we have received. . . the Spirit who is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God "(1 Corinthians 2:12).

The Holy Spirit ministers the truth of the Word via the mind, that we may share the One who is Truth via the heart.

"If you do not know the Bible as the very Word of God, all is lost! Where have you learned anything from the Lord distinctly, but where every counter influence was inadmissible–in the sacred enclosure of His own Word and Presence, where nothing to qualify what He says can exist?"

"I must not only be an expounder of the truth, but an exponent of it. There should be the sense, I have learned that word for myself. It is not just being able to describe it, or to put it in correct dispensational order; but having that word for myself from the Spirit."

"The mistake with many saints in the present day is that they think because they can describe a truth, that therefore they have learned it. When a truth is really accepted, the conscience demands that there should be accordance with it."

"The Scriptures tell me what the Father gives me, but they do not give it to me. The Spirit applies the Word to me in its divine meaning, and then I possess what Scripture tells me is mine through God's grace. For instance, the Word tells me that if I behold the Lord's glory I shall be transformed. It doesn't transform me, however clearly I may see what it states. It communicates to me a very great thing, but it is the Spirit who makes it experiential to me." -J.B.S.

"Changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. " (2 Corinthians 3.18).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

LIBERATED FROM LAW

"In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature" (Galatians 6:15).

"The law is not our 'rule of life' for the simple reason that it was the Israelite's. The Christian not being a Jew, the law is not for him. 'Holy, just and good' it is, but the Christian's rule of life is 'in Christ. . . a new creature' (Galatians 6:15). The believer's place and rule is to walk as a 'pilgrim and stranger' upon the earth. The law has nothing of this. Had it been fulfilled, it would have made earth morally a paradise; and will, when written upon Israel's heart in millennial days. But strangership on earth and a heavenly walk, it never taught." -F.W.G.

"The Christian is on larger, higher, firmer ground than that on which Israel after the flesh stood. The law is good if a man use it lawfully; and its lawful application is expressly not to form, guide, and govern the walk of the righteous, but to deal with the lawless and disobedient, ungodly and sinful, unholy and profane, and, in short, with whatever is contrary to sound doctrine (1 Timothy 1:9,10)." -F.W.G.

"Any aspect of life or conduct which is undertaken in dependence on the energy and ability of the flesh is, to that extent, purely legal in character, whether it be the whole revealed will of God, the actual written commandments, or the exhortations of grace. Dependence on the arm of flesh is consistent with pure law; dependence on the power of God is demanded under pure grace." -L.S.C.

"Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty with which Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (Galatians 5:1).

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"The place of man under grace is that he has been accepted in Christ (Eph 1:6), who is his standing and therefore is not on probation. As to his past life, it does not exist before the Father; he died in Christ on the Cross and now Christ is his life.

Grace once bestowed is not withdrawn (irrevocable; Rom 11:29 - NKJV); for the Father knew all the human exigencies beforehand and His action was independent of them, not dependent upon them. The failure of devotion does not cause the withdrawal of bestowed grace (as it would under law).

For example: the man in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 and also those in 11:30-32, who did not “judge” themselves and so were “judged by the Lord – that they might not be condemned with the world.'"
- William Newell

The New Covenant of the Christian (Mat 26:28; Mar 14:24; Luk 22:20; 1Cr 11:25) which is now, is different from the New Covenant of Israel, which will begin during the Millennial Kingdom (Jer. 31:31,32; Ezek. 36:26,27; 37:14). –NC (Bob)

DEVASTATING DEVIATION

"Study to show thyself approved unto God" (2 Timothy 2:15a).

There is as much error produced in failing to divide the Word at all, as there is in wrongly dividing it.

"Covenant Theology (Law), at the utmost, is forgiveness of sins and divine favor enjoyed; and all that concerns their position in the Lord Jesus is ignored, or alas! guarded against as dangerous. Men are placed under the New Covenant (millennial Israel) which does not go beyond remission of sins and the law written in the heart. But being in Christ, and knowing it by the Holy Spirit, and what it involves now has dropped out of their creed altogether."

"We are come 'to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant' (Hebrews 12:24). We (Jewish / Gentile Christians) are not come to the new covenant (of Israel), but to Jesus the Mediator of it. I am associated with Him who is the Mediator; that is a much higher position than if we merely come to the covenant. He will make this new covenant with Israel on the millennial earth." -H.S.

"Non-dispensational teachers have endeavored to bring over the many promises of the physical and material aspects of kingdom salvation into the present dispensation, giving hope of material prosperity and physical health, as well as political peace. Failure to realize these promised goals has caused many to lose faith and to become bitter toward God Himself. The failure, of course, is not of God, but of teachers who have refused to rightly divide the Word of Truth."

"Calvin attempted by discipline of Church and State to make everyone live like a Christian–as did the Puritans. As a result, this effort resulted in the need to use the Old Testament rather than the New as an ethical guide."

"A workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15b).

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THE HEART OF THE MATTER

"You. . . hath He reconciled" (Colossians 1:21).

Our Father's Cross-love was personal; we were there in the Son. Our Father's heart-love is personal; we are hidden there in the Son.

"Have you ever thought of the Father dealing with you not as to what you are in yourself, but as to where He has positioned you in His Son? Have you ever thought that it is the affections of the Father's heart which flow down to us where we are, seeing us in the Son, not in our poor wretched selves? What we are in the old man is not the thing to scan, but what we are, and where we are, in the Son; and what there is in the living affections of the Father, who has raised us up together with His Son, and has given us all heavenly blessings in Him." -G.V.W.

"Nothing can make up for a lack of personal acquaintance with the Lord Jesus. Intimacy with Himself is certainly the secret of true devotedness. Occupation with Him, the heart readily detects, and rejects the voice of the stranger, and cannot but own the Lord's claims to be paramount. Nothing so thoroughly tests the state of our hearts, as whether or not we have intimacy with the Lord Jesus Himself." -H.H.S.

"A great deal of our time is spent in learning that there is nothing here to meet the requirements of our new affections. There is a wandering in the wilderness in a solitary way, and yet no city is found to dwell in. But our Father allows this in order that His children may find that their desires can only be satisfied by and in Him. We must learn that we are not of this world." -J.B.S

"To present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight" (Colossians 1:22).

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The Christian life is never that of independence but of dependence. There is nothing within ourselves to trust, but rather to “yield” it all to Him (Rom 6:13) and He will deal with it in us (Rom 8:13; Gal 5:17). Faith is not in that which it produces but in Him who produces faith in us.

Otherwise, we would be self-deprived of “casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Pet 5:7), which places strength in Him and not ourselves. It has been well said, “To be disappointed is to have trusted in the arm of flesh and not the arm of God, for God does not disappoint.”

If we believe that “all things work together for good to them that love God” (Rom 8:28), we should not be disappointed even with ourselves, which concludes of regret; this detracts in our conscience from enjoying God’s complete forgiveness and acceptance in Christ (Eph 1:6).

Regret is a worldly sorrow and can interfere in knowing complete forgiveness. “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death” (2 Cor 7:10, NKJV).
- NC

SPIRIT-DEPENDENT

"God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth" (2 Thessalonians 2:13).

To be Christ-centered, we must be Spirit-dependent.

"It is basically the belief of the truth; it is not belief of the fruits. The Holy Spirit cannot present to me the fruit He has produced in me, as the object of my faith. He speaks to me of my faults, of my sins, but not of the good works that may be in me. He produces them in me, but He hides them from me; for if we think of them, it is but a more subtle self-righteousness. It is like the manna which, being kept, produced worms. All is spoilt–it is no more faith in action. The Holy Spirit must always present to me the Lord Jesus Christ, that I may grow and have peace." -J.N.D.

"An understanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is basic to Christian growth. Spirituality is Christ-likeness, and Christ-likeness is the fruit of the Spirit. Spiritual power is not the miraculous or the spectacular, but rather the consistent manifestation of the characteristics of the Lord Jesus in the believer's life. All this is the work of the Spirit, of whom the Lord Jesus said, 'He shall glorify Me' (John 16:14).

"What are the ingredients of spirituality? First, a spirit of dependence, whatever may be the state of faith and the blessings we may have realized. Secondly, an entire confidence in the goodness of the Father; for He is love. Thirdly, the Lord Jesus as the constant object of the affections of the heart, for the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart is to fill it with contemplation of and fellowship with the Lord Jesus in glory."

"Changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18).

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God never punishes His own, but rather in love, chastens and rebukes them (Heb 12:5-11); which affords great comfort in the knowledge that regardless the occurrences in our lives He is always for us and accepts us. The remorse the Spirit causes us to feel is His loving hand guiding us to know that “the goodness of God leads you to repentance” (Rom 2:4)

The “hardness” the believer is commanded to “endure” (2 Tim 2:3) in trials has a single method of accomplishment; “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (v 1). Never will anyone owe God for His grace because it is His “gift” (Eph 2:8, 9) and therefore requires no merit to be retained. Our work is not repayment, which thing is impossible; but is gratitude out of love which will “glorify your Father” (Mat 5:16).
-NC

CHASTENING = CHILD-TRAINING

"Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous" (Hebrews 12:11a).

Our Father chastens us "for our own profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness" (Hebrews 12:10). We are not chastened because we deserve it, but because we need it. And there is no wrath in His child-training.

"Many have the wrong idea of that word 'chastening.' We think, perhaps, that it represents God as having a big stick in His hand and knocking us about all the time. You have only to make a mistake and down comes the big stick! That, of course, is a totally wrong conception of the Father, and is not at all what the word means. The word 'chastening' simply means child-training, which has to do with sonship. Sonship in our Father's mind is to have people who are reliable and responsible, who know in their own hearts what is right and what is wrong, and do not have to be constantly told and admonished.

"We should always look at our difficulties in the light of this training. It often seems that the life of a Christian is more difficult than any other life, and more troubles come to us than to anyone else. Whether we recognize it or not, these difficulties and troubles which come to us are to train us for something and to develop in us the spirit of sonship; that is, to develop spiritual intelligence and spiritual ability in us." -T. A-S.

"One of the main purposes of all the Father's dealings with us is to bring us into a greater knowledge of His Son. We never know anything about greatness unless we have a great need to know it. Therefore we are brought into situations where we must know something much greater than we already know. This is why our Father brings His children into difficult circumstances–that they may learn how great their Lord Jesus is." -T. A-S.

"Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them who are exercised by it" (Hebrews 12:11b).

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The most growth-stunting opposition to the progress of being “conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom 8:29) is that of not going “on to completion” (Heb 6:1). If the choice of a static position in the “foundation” remains, traversing beyond it onto the superstructure is not encountered.

Repentance is an internal activity of the heart involving desires which are toward the opposite of a pre-established behavior. When one chooses to “repent and be converted” (Acts 3:19), this is a single occurrence and means that one’s desires will always be toward the will of God, never requiring again to repent from the six articles listed in Hebrews 6:1, 2.

Even though this does not involve an unbroken doing of God’s will (sin), repentance remains unbroken and confession is to be maintained; this is the evidence (not the cause) of the soul’s standing in Grace, for we repent once and for all, but confess continually.

The Law was a “schoolmaster” which brought men “to Christ” (Gal 3:24), which was no longer necessary after being in Christ (v 25) and the doctrines of Christ taught by Himself and His Apostles, which esp. includes Paul, were centralized on the freedom in Christ’s atonement for the purpose of setting men apart from the Law.

This was continuously met (and still is) with opposition from those who chose to remain in Judaism, which now is the unscripturally supported concdept of a Judeo-Christian religion which if not intended for a Jewish conversion to Christianity, it is the error and weighty burden of many in modern Christendom who accept that salvation is not of the Law concerning its ritual ordinances, but believe the Decalogue (Ten Commandments - Covenantism) is still the rule of life for the Christian believer.

The are two Covenants which remain: the Covenant in Christ's blood, made in eternity past between the Father and the Son; and Israel's Covenant which God will make with them in the future (http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/twonew.htm).
-NC

RECALCITRANT REFORMATION

"Everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness" (Hebrews 5:13).

The Reformation, for all of its rise from Rome, to this day has never really gotten off the ground.

"Almost all the theology of the various 'creeds of Christendom' dates back to the Reformation, which went triumphantly to the end of Romans Five, and, so far as theological development or presentation of the truth was concerned, stopped there. Therefore, you must not regard yourself as bound to accept all that legal doctrine of sanctification, which has been and still is predominantly, the sine qua non of orthodox belief."-W.R.N.

"The contrast is painful in the extreme between the uniform language of the New Testament about Christians as thus called to worship in liberty and joy and nearness to the Father, and that of liturgies ancient and modern; and this because the results of redemption soon became merged and hidden in Jewish forms, and the law was recalled to the place of the Holy Spirit, and man in the flesh intruded wholesale into realms which belong only to those solemnly accredited as God's Church, the Body of Christ." -W.K.

"The liturgies of ritualism merely fall back upon the feelings of man, with a slight tincture of Gospel and a large infusion of law. There may be sublime language and glowing ideas, chiefly borrowed from the Old Testament; but in substance they are utterly beneath spiritual or even intelligent Christian use." -W.K.

"The only thing that God ever acknowledged in religion and ritualism was Jewish. It all had to do with the flesh. That is repudiated in the Cross; all is crucified: your life is now 'hid with Christ in God' (Colossians 3:3)."

"But solid food belongeth to them that are of full age" (Hebrews 5:14).

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THE SPIRIT'S OBJECT

"He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit (with Him)" (1 Corinthians 6:17).

We are one spirit with the Lord Jesus by the one and only Holy Spirit.

"I can always know when the Holy Spirit is leading me, because He ever occupies me with the Lord Jesus. True, He may have to call attention to my own condition, but if He does, He turns me to the Lord Jesus, not merely to convict me, but to relieve me." -J.B.S.

"Spiritual growth is the Holy Spirit engraving the Lord Jesus on a man's heart, putting Him into his thoughts, his words, and his ways, just as the Law was engraved upon stones. It is not that there is no failure. A man who is seeking to make money does not always succeed; but everybody knows what his object is. Just so, the Lord Jesus Christ is the object of the believer's life." -J.N.D.

"The believer is not to clamor for the solution of perplexities or for intellectual mastery of divine mysteries. What knowledge he has in this realm is his because the Holy Spirit has declared it to him; and for the Spirit's declaration he must wait."

"None of us is ever beyond the work of the Spirit in us. Many think that because they have the light of a truth, they are in all the practical reality of it. No! You may know and reckon on all the Bible, but there is no growth beyond the measure of the Holy Spirit's work in you." -J.B.S.

"The Holy Spirit is only truly yielded to as the Cross, with its crucifixion of the flesh and the world, has become the attitude of our heart and mind."

"He (the Holy Spirit) shall glorify Me" (John 16:14).

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HAND-HEWN

"Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous" (Hebrews 10:11a).

You will be prepared, but never pierced, by the nail-pierced Hand.

"Sufferings are for chastening (child-training). And chastening is from love, a token of our Father's care. We live in a world full of trial and suffering. Many of the Lord's people have complained that their circumstances were too unfavorable for a life of full devotion, of close fellowship with Him, or pressing on to maturity. The duties and difficulties, the cares and troubles of life, render it practically impossible, they say, to live a fully consecrated life.

"Would God that they might learn the lesson of His Word! Every trial comes from the Father as a call to come away from the world to Him, to trust Him, to believe in His love. In every trial He will give strength and blessing. Let but this truth be accepted, in each trial, small or great; first of all and at once, recognize the Father's hand in it. Say at once, I welcome it from Him; my first care is to glorify my Father–He will use it all for my good."

"Do not be afraid of the Father's training school. He both knows His scholars, as to what they are, and He knows for what service they are to be fitted. A jeweler will take more pains over a gem than over a piece of glass; but the one he takes most pains over is longest under discipline and most severely dealt with. Once finished, however, the burnish never tarnishes, the brightness never dims. So with us. If we are placed, at times, as in a furnace, it is not merely for earthly service, but for eternity. May you so appreciate the plans of your Father that you can triumphantly glory in the love that subjects you to such discipline, though the trial itself be sharp and to the flesh hard to bear." -J.H.T.

"Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them who are exercised by it" (Hebrews 12:11b).

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FREELY COME; FREELY ABIDE

"That our God may make you worthy of His call, and by His power fully satisfy your every desire for goodness" (2 Thessalonians 1:11a, Wms.).

If we are born into the Lord Jesus by sheer grace, surely He can manifest Himself in us on the same principle.

"It is this quiet expectation and confidence, resting on the Word of the Lord Jesus that in Him there is an abiding place prepared, which is so sadly wanting among Christians. The idea many have of grace is that their conversion and pardon are God's work, but that now, in gratitude to Him, it is their work to live as Christians. There is always the thought of work (law) that has to be done, and even though they pray for help, still the work is theirs. They fail continually, and become helpless; and the despondency only increases the helplessness.

"Abiding in the Lord Jesus is not a work that we have to do as the condition for enjoying His salvation, but a consenting to let Him do all for us and in us, and through us. It is a work He does for us–the fruit and power of His redeeming love. Our part is simply to yield, to trust, to abide, and to wait for what He has engaged to perform. As it was the Lord Jesus who drew thee when He said 'Come,' so it is the Lord Jesus who keeps thee when He says 'Abide.'" -A.M.

"The heart is constantly looking to God to give a testimony about itself; but the Father is giving a testimony concerning His Son, and not about what we are; if He were to give a testimony about us, it must be about our sin and unbelief of heart. But no; and it is of great importance in this day of infidelity to see that if the Father gives a testimony, it is about His Son, and what He is to the sinner. If you believe that, you will have peace." -J.N.D.

"And complete every activity of your faith, so that the Name of our Lord Jesus might be glorified in you" (2 Thessalonians 1:11b, Wms.).

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UNFEIGNED HUMILITY

"God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble" (1 Peter 5:5).

Humility is the hallmark of the servant resting in, and sent from, the Father's presence.

"There is a sense in which God's true servant is always a defeated man. The one who drives on with a sense of his own importance, who is unwilling to appreciate the worthlessness of his own best efforts and is always seeking to justify himself–that one will not be meek, and so will lack the essential enablement by which God's work must be accomplished. Our brokenness must not be feigned; we must not be content with the mere language and appearance of humility. We, too, must be as conscious of Divine mercy in our being recovered for God's service as we are of the original mercy which drew us from the dark waters of death." -H.F.

"Humility is quietness of heart. It is to have no trouble. It is never to be fretted or irritated or disappointed. It is to wonder at nothing that is done to me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me and when I am blamed or despised. It is to have my blessed home in the Lord Jesus, where I can go in and shut the door and be with my Father in secret, and be at peace when all outside is trouble." -A.M.

"The Father may allow His servant to succeed when He has disciplined him to a point where he does not need to succeed to be happy. The man who is elated by success and cast down by failure is still a carnal man. At best his fruit will have a worm in it."

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time" (1 Peter 5:6).

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There is only one place God wants the believer—close (Psa 73:28; Heb 7:19; Jam 4:8)! Many times we hinder this type of fellowship with the veiled hearts and fig leaf coverings of our conscience by not understanding the suffiency of Christ’s redemption and to base our support concerning this by any other source would be to “trod underfoot the Son of God” (Heb 10:29), due to doubting the efficacy of His atonement.

The primary evidence of a clear understanding here is “the answer of a good conscience toward God” (1 Pet 3:21), which can only be maintained when we accept the truth that “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them” (Heb 7:25).
-NC

NEW BIRTH PLACE

"(God) hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6)

We are to settle down to live and grow precisely where we have been re-born: in Christ Jesus above.

"Do we not often harbor the thought that something yet remains to be done–either by ourselves or by Him–in order to our drawing near? Do we not often thus become occupied with the circumstantials of worship rather than with the Lord Jesus–the substance? Are we not often false to Him in questioning our title to draw near, because we find distance in our own hearts, as if it was the warmth of our affections, instead of the Blood of the Lord Jesus, which brought us nigh?" -W.K.

"Our being perfectly cleansed by the Blood of the Lord Jesus, the Holiest of All is our place before the Father, and it is so simply upon the ground of what His sacrifice has effected. Our dwelling place is in the light, not by reason of our subjective condition, but because the Lord Jesus has made the position ours by the putting away of our sins, and by bringing us to the Father." -H.F.W.

"The heart must enter into something more than the look behind into those waters of judgment, out of which the Lord Jesus rose, having left our sins, and death, and judgment forever! Such a joy would never carry us through the desert where faith and patience are tried and tested every day. It needs that the heart be carried into the glory of Canaan beyond; in the present sense of peace with the Father, and the consciousness of standing in His present favor–the favor that is better than life." -F.G.P.

"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil" (Hebrews 10:19, 20).

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“We must remind ourselves that "without faith it is impossible to please him" (Hebrews 11:6a). Moreover, and this is all-important, true faith must be based solely upon scriptural FACTS, for "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). Unless our faith is established upon facts, it is no more than conjecture, superstition, speculation, or presumption.” – M Stanford

“Since true faith is anchored upon scriptural facts, we are certainly not to be influenced by IMPRESSIONS. George Mueller said, "Impressions have neither one thing nor the other to do with faith. Faith has to do with the Word of God. It is not impressions, strong or weak, which will make the difference. We have to do with the Written Word and not ourselves or our impressions."

Once we begin to reckon (count) on facts, our Father begins to build us up in the faith. From his profoundly simple trust in God, Mueller was able to say that "God delights to increase the faith of His children. We ought, instead of wanting no trials before victory, no exercise for patience, to be willing to take them from God's hand as a means. I say -- and say it deliberately -- trials, obstacles, difficulties, and sometimes defeats, are the very food of faith."

James McConkey wrote: "Faith is DEPENDENCE upon God. And this God-dependence only begins when self-dependence ends. And self-dependence only comes to its end, with some of us, when sorrow, suffering, affliction, broken plans and hopes bring us to that place of self-help-lessness and defeat. And only then do we find that we have learned the lesson of faith; to find our tiny craft of life rushing onward to a blessed victory of life and power and service undreamt of in the days of our fleshly strength and self-reliance."

FILIAL FAITH

"He (the Spirit) maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God" (Romans 8:27).

Neither the Lord Jesus nor the Holy Spirit ever thought of willing or praying outside the will of God the Father. Neither will we, while we walk in the Spirit, and abide in the Lord Jesus.

"Faith is not a power that one possesses, by which he can move the arm of God and work miracles. 'Faith accepts quiet guidance; only unbelief demands a miracle.' There is nothing in true faith that the flesh can glory in. The power is God's. It is the Father who works and does it according to His own wisdom and will. Faith is simply absolute confidence in the Father which gives the certainty that He will fulfill His Word." -A.H.

"Faith must be based upon certainty. There must be the definite knowledge of and confidence in the Father's purpose and will. Without that there can be no true faith. For faith is not a force that we can exercise or a striving to believe that something shall be, thinking that if we believe hard enough it will come to pass." -A.H.

"Let us not be discouraged if the transformation we long for does not take place immediately. Let us feel the need and lay it to heart. Let us stand in faith, and we shall never be put to shame. Cleaving to the Lord Jesus and His Word with purpose of heart can never be in vain. The hour will surely come when out of our hearts, too, will flow rivers of living water."

"Whatever sends us to the Lord Jesus–be it grief, disappointment or burden–is to that degree a blessing. No price is too great to pay in gaining this fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ."

"That ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding" (Colossians 1:9).

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When the motive for learning God’s Word is to allow the Spirit to apply it experientially in our lives, we will find that our fellowship “with Christ in God” (Col 3:3) is always precedential. This is developed in only one way; to “know Him” (Phil 3:10), and the prerequisite for this is first, to know His Word, then to understand it.

As we maintain exposure to the written Word it provides more possibility for us to learn that “which the Holy Spirit teaches”, which will be commensurate with our motives for the use of this knowledge, in whether or not it is to “puff up” (1 Cor 8:1), which results “in words which man's wisdom teaches” (1 Cor 2:13).

In our zeal to serve the Lord Jesus we can easily encounter situations which occasionally distract our learning of Him, only to find ourselves remembering the need to refocus on His person in our serving Him. This is best exemplified in His visit with the two sisters Martha and Mary. Luke wrote (10:39-42) that “Mary sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word” while “Martha was distracted with much serving” and when Martha complained to Him that her “sister has left me to serve alone”, He told her “one thing is needed and Mary has chosen that good part.”

Our present fellowship with Christ is best understood and maximized when we realize God “has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:6). This means we have an unbroken continuity with Him (through His Spirit) where He is now and it is as we also are in the Father’s presence, “because as He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).

As we continue to behold Him in this glory, we can rest in the assurance of living in His promise, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb 13:5); which was His promise to Joshua (Deu 13:6; Josh 1:5) and is extended to all who are His (Deu 4:31; 1Chro 28:20).
- NC

THE LIVING TRUTH

"I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:14).

We must be truth-centered if we are to be Christ-centered.

"With an increase of knowledge and apprehension of the truth, there is a constant sense that we are not practically up to what we have received; and hence the measure of our strength is not the enjoyment of a truth, but the extent to which we maintain what we believe in spite of every obstacle. It is the way in which we surmount the difficulties in our path, and not the enjoyment of the truth, which defines our position." -J.B.S.

"We will not learn truth aright excepting in the deepening knowledge of the Lord Jesus. It is the lack of this which is the cause of weakness among us: bare doctrine is not connected with Him. When the flower is separated from that which is its source, its sustenance and support, it is henceforth doomed to decay. We have that which is lovely and full of blessing in the Lord Jesus; but if we are to know it as such, to prove its truth, to enjoy it practically, it must be in taking these things as connected with Him." -W.K.

"The Lord Jesus Himself, and not even truth about Him, must be filling our hearts if we are to grow. This is no unnecessary admonition in a day when knowledge of the most sacred truths may be intellectually attained by so small an effort. It is a happy and necessary thing to understand the Word of God, but, with that Word treasured, the aim of the believer's affections should be, 'That I may know Him.' Desires after the Lord Jesus, desires to live with Him in heaven now, and to manifest Him on earth, make the growing believer separate from the world, and separate him unto the glorified Lord." -H.F.W.

"That I may know Him" (Phil 3:10).

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SPIRIT SPIRITUALITY

"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Corinthians 3:17).

Concerning the Holy Spirit, hidden as He is, faith is required above all else.

"Certainly the Holy Spirit directs in the countless details of daily life. Those who have faith, and are dependent upon His direction, will not be disappointed. But the Spirit leads according to Scriptural directions; hence that which is called the leading of the Spirit, and which has not the truth of the Word for its line of thought and action, is necessarily false." -H.F.W.

"The principle of walking in dependence upon the Holy Spirit must never be abandoned, however we may fail to carry it out. We must steer by divinely given principles, even if winds and waves at times do throw us off course. To give up the Father's principles because of opposing elements is to court shipwreck." -H.F.W.

"Being led by the Holy Spirit is the principle by which the Father deals in grace with believers. Outside the circle of the Spirit, men are led by the flesh; under the law His people were in bondage and under the schoolmaster. Now, in Christian privilege, the Spirit leads: 'if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law' (Galatians 5:18). -H.F.W.

"The Lord Jesus in glory is the standard of perfection, and the Savior on earth is the pattern for our walk. No one's walk is perfect, but the Spirit of Christ who dwells in us is perfect, and as the believer yields to the Father as one alive from the dead, the desires of the flesh are not fulfilled, and the Spirit brings forth His fruit in him." -H.F.W.

"Walk in (dependence upon) the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16).

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There is more profitability in store for the believer to go through a trial with Christ than to go around one without Him. It is a “glory” (2 Cor 12:9) for a believer to “endure hardness” (2 Tim 2:3) because “as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation” (2 Cor 1:7).

We rested in God’s grace for our salvation and we must continue to rest in His grace for everything else, because He has made no other provision for our “sufficiency” (2 Cor 12:9). Basing our support on anything other than His grace is failure, thus delaying His teaching in our learning progression.

We can “patiently wait” (1 Pet 2:20) the trial out by just letting it “pass over” (Ex 12:23). Even if it is a self-incurred adversity due to a mistake, from which many a lessons will derive, we can be assured that “all things work together for good to them that love God” (Rom 8:28). Whether we go through kicking and screaming or patiently trusting, the outcome will be the same, “deliverance”! The obvious difference for the former is just a lesson yet to learn.

A cruise ship was caught in a storm at sea, when a frightful women restlessly made her way to the helm to ask the captain what they were going to do. He took her to the port side and said “if you look near the center you’ll notice a plank flapping and if it dislodges we’ll go down. If you look at the smoke stack you’ll notice it is billowing full stream, so if the boiler blows we’ll go up. But unless either occurs, we’re going through!! (Fictional)
- NC

SUPPORT, NOT RELIEF

"In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
Relief from pressure may seem merciful, but support in the pressure produces growth and maturity.

"There is a greater blessing for us than relief; there is the Father's support, for it imparts to you an acquaintance with Himself which relief does not. Relief makes one more satisfied with things here. I have known some who could tell you of a long list of mercies, most touching, truly proof of the tenderness of God.

"Thank God, we all know something of His tenderness. But then there is a greater blessing, namely, that He does not remove the pressure, but raises you above it, so that, though you are not relieved, you are better off than if you were merely relieved, because you know His heart who supports you in the pressure. You have made a deep acquaintance with your Father, and your heart is more attached to Him." -J.B.S.

"It is not getting away from our circumstances, our environment, our associations, that we need, but the Lord Jesus' likeness where we are. The Father placed us there, permitted the trials for a purpose, and He stands ready to bring us out into a life of liberty, if we will stand with Him in trust and endurance while He works it out."

"Have you asked to be made like your Lord; that it might be 'not I, but Christ'? Have you longed for the fruit of the Spirit, and have you prayed for patience and love? Then fear not the stormy tempest that is at this moment sweeping through your life. A blessing is in the storm, and there will be a rich fruitage in the 'afterward.'"

"The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deuteronomy 33:27).

WithChrist.com

ACCUSATION

"Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1).

There will be no standing against the enemy's accusations until we are firmly assured of, and settled on, the fact that our Father is at peace with us because of our living union with His Beloved Son. And this alone will give us peace with our Father.

"We thought we were being more Christian by striving more, praying more, reading our Bible more, and confessing our sins more. But all that brought no relief. The awful gnawing in our vitals continues. The sense of guilt increases. We need not a Nathan to say, 'Thou art the man!' A thousand voices are forever ringing in our ears giving the lie to what we long with infinite yearning might be an altogether convincing testimony of a truly Christian walk.

"Now the way out is to be found in a clear-cut recognition of the fact that, as Paul says in Romans 8:1, 'There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.' Let appearances, voices and feelings to the contrary be what they may, still this is a fact. The reason, of course, is found not in ourselves, but in Another." -F.J.H.

"It is a wonderful thing to have the consciousness that we are in living union with the Lord Jesus in heavenly glory, knowing our position in that risen sphere, participating in all that constitutes His life in the blessed circle of love and rest where He lives unto the Father. If we apprehend this we shall not be deceived by what goes on upon the earth." -C.A.C.

"Stand fast, then, in the freedom which Christ has given us" (Galatians 5:1, Wey.).

WithChrist.org

THE EXCELLENT GLORY

"We all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. . . " (2 Corinthians 3:18a).

During the first half of your Christian life you are concerned about your doing; in the second half you will be burdened about your being.

"The more simply devoted you are to the Lord Jesus, who is worthy of all devotion, the more fragrance there will be in all your ways; for it will be manifested that you are not seeking yourself, not wincing because your rights are invaded, or that you are not as much cared for as you are entitled to be. Rather, there is only one governing thought of your life about everything, and that is, how you may distinguish Him who fills every need in your heart, and lights it up with unfading joy."-J.B.S.

"Nothing can be so divinely beautiful on earth as a believer so transformed by the Spirit of God, that he is in heavenly manners here on earth; so that he does not in any of his ways deny the Lord Jesus Christ; but in the most trying hour of his history upon earth the Lord can say of him, 'thou hast a little power, and hast kept My Word, and hast not denied My Name.'" -J.B.S.

"In creation God planted a man in the garden in innocence; in redemption He has planted a Man in heaven, in glory. There is a glory that excelleth. The glory in redemption leaves the glory that was once in creation as nothing." -J.G.B.

"For every believer who actually crosses over into the Promised Land there are far too many who stand for awhile and look longingly across the river, and then turn sadly back to the comparative safety of the sandy wastes of the self-life."

". . . are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord " (2 Corinthians 3:18b).

WithChrist.org

GROUNDWORK

"Ye have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3).

When we rely upon and cater to the old man, that ground produces "the works of the flesh" (Galatians 5:19-21). But as we abide in the risen Lord Jesus, that new ground of our position, His life will be manifested in "the fruit of the Spirit" (Galatians 5:22,23).

"God's Word declares that we are 'dead indeed unto sin,' but nowhere does it say that we are dead in ourselves. We shall look in vain within to find death there. We have died to sin; not in ourselves, but 'in Christ,' and our death with Him is as sure as His death, and since we died with Him it is impossible for His death to be certain and ours uncertain.

"We were crucified with Him because we were in Him (Galatians 2:20). We are raised in Him (Ephesians 2:6); we are complete in Him (Colossians 2:10); we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in Him (Ephesians 1:3); the entire work regarding us is not done in us but in the Lord Jesus–the Father has done all in His Son. If you stand on the ground of what the Lord Jesus is (abide), you will find in your growth that all that is true of Him is becoming true of you; but if you remain on the ground of what you are in yourself, you will find that all that is true of the old man is true of you in life and walk."

"The purpose of Paul, in Romans Six, is to show how completely the believer is identified with the Lord Jesus when 'He died unto sin.' To enter fully into the meaning of that death is to see that He has emancipated us from any further dealings with our old master, sin. The believer is privileged thus to take his position in the risen Lord Jesus, who is now 'alive unto God.' From that ground he is henceforth to regard sin." -E.H.

"Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty with which Christ hath made us free" (Galatians 5:1).

WithChrist.org

TRUE LOVE

"If (since) ye, then, be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above" (Colossians 3:1).
Our Father may cripple our earthly standing in order to strengthen our spiritual state, but He will never detract from our spiritual state in order to enhance our worldly standing. Never. "The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Galatians 6:14).

"It is not only that the Lord Jesus is the object of my heart, but I find that the One I love has made me the object of His heart! A great day for the soul. People are ready to say how they love Him, but how far can they say that they are conscious of His love for them; that they so prize it, that it is the greatest secret of their heart?

"When the Lord Jesus' love is before you, you find this love is drawing you from darkness to light. He begins by showing His desire for your spiritual advancement, and not by advancing you in earthly position. It is beautiful to see that the work of true love is to set aside darkness, or whatever would interfere with association; and therefore it is not esteemed as it ought to be, because we are looking for something on earth, and the tendency is to judge of His love by earthly gifts and favors down here." -J.B.S.

"Most growing believers rightly maintain that all must come from the Lord; but instead of taking their actual position of being dwellers in heaven, and coming from there to earth, they only look up to heaven for help as to their walk on earth; and their thoughts and labors are always influenced and dictated by the state and order of things on earth, and instead of seeking the mind of the Lord as learned in heaven, they are occupied with the blessings of man on earth." -J.B.S.

"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God " (Colossians 3:2,3).

WithChrist.org

Our heavenly Father desires us to “leave the principles of the doctrine of Christ” and “go on unto completion.”(Heb 6:1). This is our lives being “conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom 8:29) by appropriating what God has made available to us which concerns “all things that pertain unto life and godliness” (2 Pet 1:3). It is only through the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit that this is being done in all who are His and so our spiritual growth is increased by that “which the Holy Ghost teaches”.

He never works outside of the Scriptures because His way is “comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Cor 2:13), instead of men “measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves” (2 Cor 10:12). Thus, the only growth source is the Word of God and the Spirit will teach us through it as we continue to study it while asking that the “Lord give thee understanding in all things” (2 Tim 2:7).
-NC

In the overall development of the Church, it would seem that we are at the dawn of the Father's spreading of the Growth truths before His own. We are not only to share the Gospel truths with the lost, but also the Growth truths with the saved.

The Psalms was the only book of Scripture fully translated into Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman, and Old English, with the exception of Bede, who, with his dying breath, completed his translation of John.

Our fathers had to wait eight and a half centuries, from Caedmon to Tyndale, before the Epistles of Paul were translated into the common tongue, and thus they could have the full truth revealed by Paul in his proclamation of the Cross.
How readily we take for granted what the Father has given us, to give.

"Wherefore, also, we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness, and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thessalonians 1:11,12).
-Miles J. Stanford; May 1985

PERFECT PROVISION

"For when for a time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food" (Hebrews 5:12).

It is a great comfort, during our growing up in the Lord Jesus, to know that He is our perfect provision, and that He provides the perfect processing.

"When the queen bee lays an egg, there is deposited in the cell with it the food on which the larva is to feed during its development. Similarly, when the Father placed us 'in Christ,' He also made provision in Him for our whole life. Christ is made unto us wisdom to enable us to walk aright in a perplexing world, righteousness to replace our sinfulness, sanctification to impart the growth we so greatly need, and redemption of the body to consummate the whole."

"As with the seed that is buried once for all, but then disintegrates through a gradual process that sets free the new life, even so does the Father deal with our old man by delivering it to death with the Lord Jesus once for all, and then bringing about its mortification in detail through the circumstances of life, until the power of the flesh has lost its hold." -L.T.

"Our Father is faithful and wise as well as a gracious and patient Teacher. He will not permit us to pass cursorily over our lessons. Sometimes, perhaps, we think we have mastered a lesson, and we attempt to move on to another; but our wise Teacher knows better, and He sees the need of deeper ploughing. He will not have us mere theorists or smatterers: He will keep us, if need be, year after year at our scales until we learn to sing."-C.H.M.

"Solid food belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil" (Hebrews 5:14).

WithChrist.org

The practical “Condition” of the believer includes the infirmities encountered in the physical body and also in the thoughts of the mind, along with the joys of Heaven now and later. The “Position” of the believer includes not only God’s present “mercy and grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:16) but also our place before the Father. Being fully identified with Christ we presently have a position with Him and are now, “made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:6). Because of being “sealed” with or “given” (synonymous) the Holy Spirit, we are “guaranteed” (1 Cor 1:22; 5:5; Eph 1:13, 14) an “inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven” (1 Pet 1:4).
- NC

PERMANENT POSITION

"Alive unto God in Jesus Christ, our Lord" (Romans 6:11).

Until the believer's faith is firmly established in the fact of his position in the risen Lord Jesus, he will not be able to rest in Him during the process of his position becoming his condition. One must be sure of the Source before he can trust for the growth.

"The standing of the believer is settled, perfect, eternal. His state is imperfect and fluctuating. He is partaker of the new life which cannot sin; but he bears about within him the old man which can do nothing else but sin. Now his standing is in the new and not the old. He is not in the flesh, but in the Spirit (Romans 8:9). He is not under law, but under grace. This is his perfect and unalterable position; his sins are gone before God; his person is accepted by God–all complete in the Lord Jesus Christ.

"His practical condition can never touch his position. It can very seriously affect his fellowship, his worship, his testimony, his usefulness, his spiritual enjoyment, the glory of the Lord Jesus as involved in his practical career. These are great consequences in the estimation of every sensitive conscience and well-regulated mind; but the position of the true believer remains intact and unalterable. The feeblest member of the family of God has this place of security, and is perfect in Christ. To deny this is to remove the true basis of self-judgment and practical growth." -C.H.M.

"We are spiritually both in the wilderness and in Canaan; we are partakers on earth of the heavenly calling, and we are seated in Christ in the heavenly places. The enjoyment of the favors of the Father to us, in the heavenly places in Christ, enhances the sense of His favors to us in the wilderness." -H.F.W.

"We are identified in union with Him who stands as really for us in the glory of the heavens as once for us He hung upon the Cross."

"For to me to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21).

WithChrist.org

It is understandably so, that early on in the believer’s walk there is a desire to serve Christ, but serving Him out of pure gratitude and working for His blessings are entirely at variance. The former puts Himself in center view; the latter puts what He provides in center view and can engender legalistic-covenantism, which is unbelief because it falsely assumes there is a requirement of a greater “supply” (Phil 4:19) than what God provides.

It is bereft of limited trust in the work of Christ, not accepting that His atonement was “sufficient” (2 Cor 12:9) and thereby presuming to need man’s assistance. This is the Israelite-error which was manifested first in their deliverance from Egypt after a four-hundred and thirty year captivity (Ex 12:41), then in the wilderness and finally at the offering of Christ’s ”New Covenant” (Luk 22:20 - Israel’s salvation will come later).

God provided everything Israel needed for deliverance from Egypt and in the wilderness, but their unbelief evidenced mistrust during their exodus (Ex 14:11, 12) and in their wilderness-wandering (Ex 16:3). The same problem continues not only with the generality of Israel but also among the Gentile Christian’s, presuming man must somehow repay God for salvation or at least offer self in service to retain it; of which neither can suffice, but only manifests the ominous Israelite-error extant in contemporary Christendom.
- NC

BOLD BELIEF

"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus" (Hebrews 10:19).

We enter our Father's presence when we believe He has already positioned us there in His Son.

"The Lord Jesus' work on the Cross gave us present entrance into the Holiest of All. What removed our sins rent the veil; and those who believe are positioned in the innermost sanctuary even now. Boldness to enter there on any pretension of our love or holiness, of nature or even divine ordinance, would be shameless presumption. In Hebrews Ten it is calmly claimed for believers, who are exhorted in the strongest terms to approach by faith the Father's presence without a doubt or a cloud, now.

"Boldness to enter the Father's presence is due to the shed Blood of the Savior. Only unbelief hinders. It is a new and living way which He dedicated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh; we honor Him by abiding there in the fullest confidence that pleases the Father. Being born of the Father we are abidingly His children. As such we have the right to take our place before Him. It is our privilege to think of ourselves according to what we are as being one spirit with the Lord Jesus; and this is ever maintained by Him.

"What we are by grace, as in Him before the Father, is unchangeable, and our interests are in His hands. Beloved, do our failures, our sins, in anywise alter what He is there before the face of our Father? What He is there is what we are, not of course in ourselves, but as being in the Lord Jesus who is our Life." -C.A.C.

"There are two basic things that the believer has to learn. One is, you are not to have the man here and the place where he is, the other is, you do have another Man, and the place where He is."

"By a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us" (Hebrews 10:20).

WithChrist.org

We are saved not only from something (sin) but also for something (fellowship). Scripture is occasionally repetitious concerning many truths for our learning and reassurance. It seems to me that our dealings with the “old man” (sinful nature) is predominant because this is the only avenue by which any opposition can approach us in our “new man”. How fervent our desire is for the Spirit’s teaching and leading will be evident in our desire for the Word with His guidance; along with how much we desire to live without the control of our “old man” (Rom 6:12, 14).
- NC

DETHRONEMENT

"For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty" (Galatians 5:13).

Our "No" to the old will be absolutely ineffective unless we are standing upon the facts of the new.

"At the Cross the old man was crucified and buried. When I plant my feet on that fact and say, 'No, as for me, I stand in the Lord Jesus as my life,' its governing power is broken. It is not annihilated or eradicated, but it has lost its throne. It is a greater testimony to the power of the Father to let that thing be in us and give us dominion over it, than to eradicate it to begin with. We want to get clear in our minds that the Father does not mean to improve the old man on the one hand, nor to remove it on the other. The fact that it does not go away or get better does not mean that we are not growing." -N.D.

"Our having been crucified with the Lord Jesus was to make the body of sin of none effect while we live by faith, but the old man can become active and dominant in the walk of the believer when faith becomes dormant and inactive. It is not the Father's will that sin should have dominion over any child of His; all died with the Lord Jesus, all were united with Him in crucifixion, but few enter into the joy of the freedom of the sons of God, because they do not believe His Word.

"Will you not now bow before your Father and thank Him regardless of feeling? It may take a day or a month, I do not know how long, but I do know that when any child of God will believe and begin to express that faith in thanksgiving, day by day thanking Him for the fact which one may not yet have experienced, the Holy Spirit will lead that one into a glorious personal realization of his identification with the Lord Jesus in His death, burial, resurrection and ascension." -L.L.L.

"They who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17).

WithChrist.org

I wanted to share this special note for those who spend time in the Bible concerning Scriptural-verse-studying. I realize many, if not most have not made it a practice to utilize a Bible Commentary, but I want to encourage you to attempt to do so for reasons I believe you would soon realize.

Apostle John wrote, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets (and teachers) have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). It should not need emphasized to realize this is no less applicable concerning our truth-searching in every way we may conceive; otherwise we may be unknowingly limiting useful avenues by which the Holy Spirit teaches Scripture.

I realize there are some who might be hesitant to compare their beliefs with other sources due to concerns that it may negatively affect their present beliefs, but limiting the comparing of them to other Christian’s beliefs also limits the “testing” of yours.

Until you may or may not find this to become a useful means, I would like to recommend John Gill’s Bible commentary (http://www.ewordtoday.com/comments/gill/) because in my experiences with commentaries his seems, to me, to be the most inclusive and studious. As we already know, the Holy Spirit is the teacher to all Christians who seek Biblical truths and this includes many (not all) who are commentators who have spent the majority of their lives being used of the Spirit to share insight that one would not otherwise have opportunity to compare with. (Gill's commentary on the link listed is also among others so always check at the top for his name).

I would greatly appreciate those who would share their opinion (in this thread) concerning this issue, especially if you try this and find it helpful. God’s blessings to your Families and God be blessed!
Bob (NC)

MERCIFUL DEATH

"Set your affection on things above. . . for ye died and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Col. 3:2, 3).

The spiritual recession that occurs after the early joys of the new birth is not necessarily backsliding at all. The discovery of the sinful old man is the first and foremost step in the discovery of the righteous Christ-life.

"We are more disposed to be occupied in telling the Father what we are in ourselves, than to allow Him to tell us what we are in the Lord Jesus Christ. So often the believer is more taken up with his own self-consciousness than with the Father's scriptural revelation of Himself. His revelation is one thing; my self-consciousness is quite another "

"It gladdens the heart to hear the new convert speak of the blessings he has received, and of his new-found joy in those blessings; but we can often see very distinctly that he is wrapping all these benefits of grace round himself, and we feel pretty sure that he will have to learn some lessons presently that will take the shine out of him. He will have to learn what a poor wretched thing he is, as in the flesh, that his heart may be transferred to a new center altogether.

"Nothing can be more distasteful to a spiritual mind than to hear people professedly giving a Christian testimony which begins and ends with themselves. It is for the effectual displacement of all this, and to transfer the heart to an entirely new center, that the revelation of the old man is divinely necessary for our souls. The Father has to come in and detach us from that which is our natural center, that He may link our affections with another Person–even with the glorified Lord Jesus Christ–and make Him everything to our hearts, so that our association with Him may be known, and may become the deep, abiding joy of our souls." -C.A.C.

"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor and glory, and blessing" (Rev. 5:12).

Even though the ”Protestant Reformation” has brought much religious freedom to the generality of Christendom, it did not address the “identification” truths of our “new man” in Christ and our “old man” in Adam; which is constantly addressed by Paul. Our part concerning this dichotomy-of-natures involves a follow-up of how to each will be yielded; “whether of sin leading to death” (not born-again) or of obedience leading to righteousness” (born-again—Rom 6:16)? This involves the “putting off” of the old and the “putting on” of the new (Eph 4:22-24); and God will ensure the latter for those born-again, “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13).

Though these natures are not entities such as beings, they no less contain a power or “law” (Rom 7) which determines what an entity (person or angel) is. The “enmity” (Rom 8:7) between the two does not present a situation as to which will win or lose, that has already been settled (Rom 6:6), which ultimately evidences the regenerate and Spirit-controlled life, “so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Gal 5:17). Therefore everyone born-again will eventually evidence the Spirit-controlled life at their individual progressions, “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Rom 11:29 NKJV).
- NC

ME, MYSELF, AND I

"Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24).

While both are essential, it is far more difficult to get to know the old man than it is to know the Lord Jesus. Many who know something of Him, know little or nothing of themselves.

"There is not a more difficult lesson in the Christian life than to come to a true knowledge of what the flesh is. Its terrible power, its secret and universal rule, and the blinding it exerts in keeping us from the knowledge of what it is, are the cause of all our sin and evil. Hence it comes that so few really believe in their absolute inability to obey God or to believe in His love. And there is nothing that can deliver us from it but that entire willingness to die to the old man, which comes when by faith we understand that we have died in Christ Jesus." -A.M.

"It seems that God's Spirit has to take every growing believer through a drastic process of self-exposure. That fleshly principle lurking within has to be looked in the face. Its presumptuous claim to be a sufficient source of wisdom and ability has to be exposed in its big lie. Its save-yourself attitude has to be recognized and rejected. And such knowledge can only come through failure, humiliation and despair." -N.G.

"If you come to feel, through ever-recurring misery and defeat, that unless Another shall lead you into the land of fruitful obedience your whole Christian career will be a spiritual and moral chaos, then perhaps you are ready to venture your all upon your union with the Lord Jesus in His death and resurrection."

"There is no joy like that of realizing our nothingness, while at the same time reposing upon the Father's all-sufficiency."

"I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord" (Romans 7:25).

WithChrist.org

For those concerned about the “NBTHH” devotionals, I’m letting you know that the WithChrist.org web site has received a request from the current copyright owner of Miles Stanford’s publications to discontinue presentation of his materials on the internet through their web site and I am now waiting for permission as to whether or not I can continue sharing the materials in my capacity (using materials purchased over the years from their book site).

In the last thirteen years of my thirty-six year Christian walk I have been studying dispensation doctrines from theologians of the last few centuries and have found them to be as applicable to spiritual growth in Christ and as faithful, accurate and sincere to the truths of Scripture that can be expected. It has recently come to my attention that many earnest truth-seeking Christians have been unaware of the spiritual-growth teachings available within dispensation doctrine.

One prime example of concern is that there is a significant number of Christians opposing the Scriptural truth related to receiving salvation pertaining to the essential doctrine of “Justification by Faith Alone, in Christ Alone.” To understand this is pertinent to spiritual growth, as Scripture teaches that the receiving of salvation is a monolithic work of God, apart from any interjections of man. Scripture also teaches that regeneration will eventually manifest itself by “good works” (Mat 5:16; Jam 2:18). Even though true works will follow the believer, we must be clear they have no effect as to the retention of salvation, considering this can only be maintained in the same manner it is received—by Grace (Jude 1:24).

It is acceptable to have differing beliefs concerning non-essential-for-receiving-salvation doctrine, but there should not be variances concerning essential-for-receiving-salvation doctrine. The entirety of Scripture is clear in revealing that salvation comes by “Faith Alone, in Christ Alone.” This is due by “Grace” alone; therefore any alteration of this truism will only consign one to the un-restful taskmaster of “Legalistic Covetanism”, which is salvation by works (salvation evidenced by works is accurate - Jam 2:18) and is a one-eighty degree comparison to salvation by grace (Eph 2:8, 9).

“By Grace—Through Faith” is Scripture's sole proponent when revealing the method of entering Salvation; thus, transposing this order of terms (i.e. by faith instead of "by grace") is failure to understand and faithfully represent Scripture, leaving one to the destitution of his own interpretation. Since receiving salvation is “not by works” (Eph 2:9) it mandates the categorizing of “faith” as a gift of God. Concerning works and justification, Strong’s dictionary defines justification (G1344) in two categories (below); each containing a variant definition which, of course, is in accordance with contextual usage. Justification in reference to man’s work designs the concept of an outward manifestation of an inward, simultaneous work of grace. The crux of the matter is not to attempt to desire any personal credit because, "in all things He has the preeminence" (Col 1:18).

Justification:
1. To render righteous (“justified by His blood” Rom 5:9). This is prior to any work of man (other than reception) and is simultaneous with salvation, because the believer cannot produce the righteousness of God, but rather Christ is, “made unto us . . . righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor 1:30).

2. To show, exhibit, evince, one to be righteous. (“by works a man is justified” Jam 2:24). This is God working through man, to be seen by man—after receiving salvation; “that they may see your good works” (Mat 5:16). The phrase “your good works” are actually still God’s works being evident to others by Him using us.

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Theology => Bible Study => Topic started by: Netchaplain on April 12, 2012, 10:29:14 AM