Hungry Heart Daily Devotional Anthology -mjs

[nChrist]

Amen! - Excellent!

[Netchaplain]

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.).

[Netchaplain]

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).

[Netchaplain]

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)

[Netchaplain]

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:." -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).

[Netchaplain]

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).

[Netchaplain]

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).

[Netchaplain]

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).

[Netchaplain]

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).

[Netchaplain]

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).

[Netchaplain]

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).

[Netchaplain]

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).

[Netchaplain]

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.).

[Netchaplain]

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!
-NC


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).

[Netchaplain]

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).