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Many Christians are so burdened
with the heavy load of law. They are bent low with such a sorrowful
sense of failing. They always talk about what a “wretch”
they are, or they simply try to ignore how far short they fall from the
standard they believe the Bible teaches them to live. I would rather
talk about the victory I have in Jesus than the failure I am certain to
experience in the flesh. Law makes you focus on yourself. Grace
allows you to focus on Jesus.
For those
who think they have at least ten things to live up to, I have great news.
There is only ONE thing you must do to be successful in your
Christian walk. WALK IN THE SPIRIT. If you do this one thing
consistently your whole life will change. It is “easy.”
It is “light.” Or else Jesus
lied to us. You will handle ONE thing a lot better than you will
succeed in ten things.
“WALK”
is a very simple word. The term lines up with the comment, or exhortation of
Paul towards the end of the letter to the Galatians in 5:25, where he says,
“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk
in the Spirit.”
How do we
do that? It is obviously stressed in the Scriptures that we walk in the
Spirit. I think we should find on examination that either every letter, or
almost every letter, in the New Testament that discusses living in the
Spirit, has moved on to discussing walking in the Spirit.
So it’s
quite plain that the Spirit of God expects us not only to live but to
walk—not only to claim to live but to walk it out. Just to give an instance
or two, we can turn to Romans 8 where for the first time the word “walk”
comes in, “who walk
not after the flesh but after the Spirit.”
We pass
through Galatians and we come right up against “walk
in the Spirit and ye shall not
fulfill the lust of the flesh.”
Galatians 5:16. Then there is this verse, “If
we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
Galatians 5:25.
We move
into Ephesians and we are taken up into the ascended life, and then we are
brought down, “I therefore the prisoner of
the Lord beseech ye that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye
are called.” Ephesians 4:1. “Walk
in love, walk as children of light, walk circumspectly.”
Ephesians 5:2, 8, 15. So the note is struck again and again in Ephesians.
Colossians takes us up to the headship of Christ and then it says in Col.
2:6, “As therefore ye have received Christ
Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him.”
I Thes.
4:1, after He has given those delightful heart outpourings to that young
church in its early days, He says, “as ye
have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God.”
And then
you get on into John’s epistles, which are full of the walk in the strongest
possible terms. “He that saith he abideth
in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.”
And, in his second and third letters, he constantly says he delights that
his converts, his children, walk in truth. That comes two or three
times over, or words to that effect.
So we
have sufficient proof that the Holy Spirit has a great deal to say to us and
to impress upon us concerning the walk. So it is good that we spend some
time meditating on it.
THIS IS A PRESENT TENSE ACTIVITY
Remember, Jesus said it is “easy”
and it is “light.” (Mat. 11:28)
Even a child can understand it. (Mat. 18:3) Our “labor”
or our “struggle” is to enter into that
rest. The flesh refuses to rest. (Heb. 4:9-11)
The first
very simple lesson that simplifies things for me is the fact that the whole
meaning of the walk is that it is a present-tense activity. The
whole meaning of it is that it is a present tense, a down to earth,
immediate, present activity. I am now walking—that’s the idea. You are
walking NOW, not in the future, not in the past, but in the present.
You are walking now—walking in fellowship with Jesus now.
So it
brings us down to the present tense and I find it helpful to remember that
there is only one tense that really makes sense in the Christian life.
There is only one tense and it is the present. The only tense we are really
responsible for is the present. We are to live in the present. A great
many of our diversions come because we are pulled back to the past,
or forward to the future.
We’re
often pulled back to the past by the condemnations of the Satan,
the Accuser, who works through our flesh. He smears the simplicity of our
present walk by reminding us, “Oh, you’re no good; why, you sinned
yesterday; you’re selfish, you’re proud, you’re this and that. You can’t
walk consistently.” Satan dulls our presence with Jesus by his false
accusations through our flesh.
Now, I’m
not to take a single word for one minute from the past, because “there
is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”
The whole past is forever blotted out in the Precious Blood for “as
far as the East is from the West, so far has he removed our transgressions
from us.” Psalm 103:12. They are cast into the depths of the
sea. I’m not to take Satan’s condemnation! The only sense in which I am to
take the past is if I am conscious that I have just sinned, specifically
sinned on a specific point; not a general point that I am generally proud,
or generally selfish, or those lies Satan gives my fleshly mind. I’m not.
I’m in Christ. I’m not going to take that lie. I’m in Christ and crucified
with Him. I’m not going to take that smear from the past, but if there is
something I may just have committed this morning and I know it is sin, well
then, certainly I must face up and put that right. But I can do it in
one second. That’s a thing I can do at the present. I can
immediately put that right and immediately have cleansing—and
walk!
So I’m to
learn, not to add to my other sins the sin of unbelief by denying the
efficacy of the Precious Blood because the Precious Blood (Christ’s death)
is effective right up to this present moment. As I stand here, all that
matters to me at this present moment is that I am consciously in the
presence of Jesus as I write this email now. That’s all. That’s
walking. I’m walking now, as you are walking as you sit there
reading this email. Now am I, just at this moment as far as I know, with
nothing between me and my Lord? Has the Blood blotted out every sin there
was? As far as I know it has. Very well then, I walk. As for the Past, as
for the Future, leave them alone!
As for
the future, leave it with the One to whom it belongs—God. We’re
specifically told, “Take therefore no
thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of
itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” (Matt.
6:34) I don’t know if that’s one of The Lord’s ironical sayings, because
when you walk with Him evil becomes His good because you get it from His
hands. So the evil becomes His good when you walk in the present, not in
the past or the future.
Most of our troubles, of course, are
fears of the future, not what things are in the present. It’s a very
simple lesson, but very blessed when you get it. It frees us; we become
simple as a child. We’re just happily walking now with Jesus. I won’t
take anything from the past. I won’t take anything from the future. The
past is under the Blood, the future is in God’s hand, and the present is in
mine with Him. And all I can do is to be present to Him; that’s all. And
if I’ve nothing in between, then, all right, I’m not responsible. I’m just
happy. That’s all. Just walk.
There is too much heavy talk about
being responsible. Responsibility is a heavy word. I prefer
RESPONSE-TO-HIS-ABILITY-IN-ME. That, to me, is far more Scriptural. I
am “as a child” holding His hand
as we walk together right NOW.
CONTINUAL ABIDING—Way of
Walking with Jesus
How do we
walk? What does walking mean? Let’s go to that verse which I have quoted
from Colossians, “As ye
have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him.”
Of course, walking is the walking in the fellowship—in Him, with Him.
The way
Jesus spoke about walking was by another illustration—that of abiding. (John15)
Now we all know in John 15 that His emphasis is not on how we get into the
abiding relationship. He’s taken that for granted. In John 15, He says, “I
am the vine, you are the branches.”
He doesn’t discuss that. I presume He couldn’t discuss it because it was
before the atonement and they didn’t have the inner light of the Spirit.
Therefore it was not good for Him to go too far in discussions of that
inner, mystical union that the Apostle Paul later reveals. It must come
after Calvary, after the Resurrection, after Pentecost.. So He passes that
by. He just says, “This is fact. I am the
vine, ye are the branches.” We’re
one organism, we’re one blessed life. He Himself within us, that’s the
union.
Now He
says, “What I am saying to you is, ‘Abide in the union.’” So all John 15 is
saying is summed up in verse 4, “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.”
Verse 5. “I am the vine, ye are the
branches. He that abideth in Me and I in Him, the same bringeth forth much
fruit, for apart from Me ye can do nothing.” “If a man abide not
in Me, certain consequences follow.” Verse 7. “If
ye abide in Me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it
shall be done unto you.”
So we see
quite clearly what His emphasis is. “Now continue in Me.” The word
“abide” is the same as continue,
the same as remain. Continue now in me. Now that’s how you put the walk;
that’s the same as walking. “Continue now in Me.” “Abide
in Me.” I suppose the simplest explanation we can give of what
He means is that abiding in Him is seeing Him. Now He is in us and
we in Him.
Now abiding in Him is the
consciousness of His Presence, isn’t it? Seeing Him. If we’re
really abiding in Him we have that consciousness. Now if we are to know how
to abide in Him, all we have to know is how to maintain ourselves free from
anything which interferes with that abiding. That abiding is automatic and
continuous unless something interferes with it. Why? Because it is the
ministry of the blessed Spirit. Why has the Spirit come into our hearts?
To magnify the blessed Lord. He has only that one purpose, constantly,
unceasingly to reveal to our hearts that glorious Presence, which produces
all peace and power and everything else a person can know. That is what He
is here for. Therefore, that’s the automatic consequence of our life—an
invariable consequence because the Holy Spirit is an invariable Person,
unless He is interfered with. Therefore, nothing can stop that abiding
unless it is something that positively interferes with the Spirit.
Now
that’s, perhaps, the most important lesson I have learned, to recognize that
if there is the slightest cloud of any kind (whatever I might name it;
whether I call it something physical or some oppression or any other of many
names), if there is the slightest shade of a cloud between me and Him and
the bright revelation of His Presence in my heart, it means I am interfering
with the ministry of the Spirit. It is not that something automatic has
come in. Things can’t come automatically into that relationship, as it’s a
sacred citadel; things can’t enter automatically there; it’s a private place
of its own; it’s a Holy of Holies. If there is a single thing that is
clouding in the slightest way that brightness, there is something
interfering with the Spirit; and I am responsible, because it can’t get
there unless I have let it in.
Now that’s the point that has been
so helpful to me—a new quickness and sharpness of recognition. “Hello,
Hello, there is something wrong here. I’m not consciously abiding here.”
Now that’s not the Spirit’s fault. He’s there. He’s permanent. He’s a
well that always springs up into everlasting life. No, if there is
something clouding there I have let something in because the flesh or Satan
can’t get there unless I let him in. Oh no, that’s private property in
there, praise God. He can’t get in there unless I let him in. “Now what’s
up?”
And so it
comes back to this very simple fact: the simple walk with Jesus is a
happy, easy, free, daily, natural walk with Jesus only, coupled with it a
sensitivity to sin and recognition that if there is a cloud, it is sin.
That’s the point. The reason that we aren’t sensitive to sin is because we
don’t call it sin, because we have other names for it, and we name the cloud
something else and so it remains. The whole point is that God has given His
remedy for sin, but He hasn’t given His remedy for excuses. And if we call
a thing this or that, and the other, it remains this, that, and the other;
and we remain in this, that, and the other too. If we’ve let something in
which is interfering with that gracious work, that gracious ministry, we are
grieving Him; but if we call it what it is, and “confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.” And
we’re free.
So the
life becomes very simple, simply walking with Jesus but having the immediate
readiness, quickness—not introspectiveness, not that—but if something does
come in, just a readiness to say, “Hello, now there is something there. Let
me smell that out, and then put it out via the Blood.” Yes that’s a good
Scripture, “quick of scent.” We need to be quick of scent in this job as
well as quick of sight.
A Single Eye—Full of Light
Matthew 6
talks about the body being full of light. It illustrates what I am talking
about. Matt. 6:22-23 says, “The light of
the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall
be full of light.” Well, when
your eye is single you see Jesus, of course. That’s the only
point of having an eye, a spiritual eye, isn’t it—to see Jesus? And if my
eye is single, it means I have a clear simple sight of Him and therefore I
am full of light. Because He is there, therefore His Presence, His Peace,
His Power, His Fullness, His Adequacy and everything is there.
All
right, that’s obvious. That’s abiding. That’s walking now, that’s walking
with Jesus. A single eye, a body full of light, abiding in Him is all
there.
An Evil Eye—Needs Cleansing
Now what
struck me with surprise is the next verse. “But
if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.”
Now what struck me was this: the opposite of single is double. And
therefore there is a sudden change by inspiration here, for it doesn’t say
what we would think it would say, “If thine eye is double it’s full of
darkness,” but it says, “If thine eye is
evil.” Because if it said
“double” we should find a good excuse: “Oh, I’ve a good reason for it being
double! I’m not feeling well this morning, or my neighbor is a bit off, or
something.” And I could find these rotten excuses for which there is no
deliverance.
The evil
is a different point. In other words, the Scripture says, “Whenever I don’t
see Jesus I’m in evil.” Now I’ve got it. I’ve got it! Whatever sort of
thing it is, if I’ve not a crystal clear sight of Jesus in my heart, through
the ministry of the Spirit, it is evil. It’s not just
double—somebody else’s fault, or my body, or this or that, or the other; it
is evil. In other words, we shall begin to get a blessed deliverance when
we begin to call a few more million things “sin” than what we usually call
sin. And thank God it isn’t a burden to call a thing sin because He reveals
sin to cleanse it, not to condemn us. And the law of sin is that it always
veils Christ, and it always binds the sinner because Jesus said so. Jesus
said, “Whosoever is committing a sin is thereby the servant of that sin, a
slave.” Therefore, if I’m committing a sin, I’m a slave to that sin. I may
call it anything I like on earth, but it still binds me. If I dislike you,
I’m bound by my dislike. Although I may say you deserve it, I’m still bound
by it. If I’m resentful, I’m bound by my resentment although I may say it
is entirely somebody else’s fault. Whatever sin I commit, in spite of what
I might blame for it, it binds me and it cuts off the Saviour. Therefore it
is a blessed thing to see sin when it is revealed to us by that Person who
shows it to us in order to cleanse it away, because He said, “I’ll show you
the sin. And here’s the cleansing.” The immediate moment I’m ready to
acknowledge it I’m free and walk on again.
So that’s
the simplicity of the life. But it does mean sin-sensitiveness; that’s a
tremendous verse isn’t it? “If my eye is single it is full of light; if
it’s anything else but a single sight of Jesus, it is evil.” Let me
call it what it is. A verse that lines up in my mind with that and is much
the same is in Romans 14:23, the last phrase of the last verse. It says it
in another connection but we can pick it out I think quite fairly and make
it a general statement: “For whatsoever is
not of faith is sin.” Well faith is
seeing Jesus, of course. We have the faith of Jesus for we see Jesus. Of
course we do. Faith is believing Jesus, seeing Him in our hearts, and
knowing Him. That’s believing Jesus. So faith is seeing Jesus. “Whatsoever
is not of faith is sin” is the same idea. The moment I am not
seeing Jesus in a situation, the moment I am not seeing Christ in my
neighbor, the moment I am not seeing Christ in a crisis, or Christ in a
difficulty, I am sinning because it’s not of faith. I’m not seeing Jesus;
I’m seeing something else. That’s evil. Not to see Jesus is evil. That’s
big!
I’ve got to see Jesus in every
circumstance, not a single circumstance but that it’s Jesus coming to me.
That, I take it, is what Paul meant when he made that terrific statement
around which I circle in my mind again and again and wonder at: “To
me, to live is Christ.” That doesn’t leave much else, does it?
“To me, to live is Christ.”
That’s a single eye. That is
SingleVISION living. Every circumstance, every person is just
Christ to him. That’s this life. Anything less than that is sin, because
it veils Him.
AVOID
SELF IMPROVEMENT - REPLACE YOURSELF
Our great error is in thinking that
our human selves can be improved. And we think this because we have a false
concept of being responsible for self-development. This is contrary to the
truth, but it comes from the spirit of error in our world system. Self-help
books and How-to books line the shelves of even our Christian bookstores.
But we already have perfection in our union with Christ. This is an
eternal union with Him. This is our true identity.
We are called the body of Christ.
The body is the expression of the head. The body is the instrument for the
head to act. But the head and body are a unity. So Paul called the body
Christ in 1 Corinthians 12:12, “For just as
the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body,
though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”
We are the branches in the Vine.
The branch is the means by which the Vine can bear its fruit. But it is a
unity and when we see a vine we really only see its straggling branches and
we call that the vine. The branches are the vine in their branch forms and
we are Christ expressed in our human forms.
We are called the temples of the
living God, the buildings in which God may be seen; and we are the earthen
vessels whose treasure is the Christ within. We are containers and the
containers are not called on to improve or change. How would changing the
outside container improve the treasure within? It is our “earthen ness” as
vessels that magnifies the glory of His work through us.
As human selves, our only true place
in creation is in our unity with God, as the means by which He manifests
Himself through us. Apart from our destined place in the unity, we can only
be self-loving selves. Therefore it is useless and a waste of time
for us to ask God to make us loving, or patient or pure, or free us from
human reactions of hate or fear or worry or depression. It is asking an
absurdity and impossibility. The human self can never change. The
vessel can never be the living water it contains. The branch cannot be the
vine.
When that recognition is a reality
to us, then we can start by accepting ourselves in our weakness and all
normal human reactions. In this distorted world we are besieged all day
long by fear and doubt and hate and worry, etc. To feel them is normal, not
wrong. We shall always be responding to them. We hate or dislike this
person. We are jealous of that one. We are afraid of what we are called on
to do. We are worried by daily problems. We have fits of deep depression.
Our minds are assaulted by all kinds of wrong thinking. If we struggle
against them, how does that help? If we condemn ourselves for such
reactions, we remain still bound and full of guilt. If we call on God to
help or change us, we don’t get changed, or maybe just a momentary relief.
Then on what grounds can we accept
ourselves? Now we are no longer just ourselves. As Christians, we are
Christ-in-us. Christ is the real “we”. Listen to Paul. He starts by
saying Christ died for us, then speaks of the Lord with us, and goes on to
his special revelation of Christ in us; but he ends up, when he gives his
personal witness, by saying Christ is the real “I”. “I
live,” he says in Galatians 2:20. “No,” he corrects himself. “It
is not I, but Christ
living in me.” Christ, not with,
not in, but replacing Paul, Christ in Paul’s form or Christ in
your form or my form. Put your name there. You are Christ in John’s form,
Christ in Mary’s form, I am Christ in Gene’s form, and so on.
Now, in light of this revelation,
when we in our humanity are moved in this direction or that by our negative
reactions (like hate, worry or fear) we don’t struggle, we don’t condemn, we
above all don’t try to change ourselves (trying to be good is the
worst sin); no, we REPLACE. We transfer our inner believing from
what has its hold on us because we are believing in it (fear, lust, hate,
etc.) and attach our believing to who we really are, not our human selves,
but Christ in ourselves. And as we affirm and recognize Him, He Who
is the peace, love, courage, purity, manifests Himself in and by us.
“When
I am afraid,” David said, “I will
trust in God.” Unlike David in the Old Covenant, God is within
me as Christ-in-me. I won’t look away to some other place. That is
separation. This is union. When I feel fear, I will replace that “I”
with the true “I” (which is Christ-in-me) and I will express Him Who
is courage. When I feel hate, I will replace that by expressing Him
Who is in me, Him Who is love. I choose to believe what the Word says about
who I really am. I will be who I really am, not fear or hate, but
Christ-in-me as me. That is the truth of the Word of God and I will
practice the “obedience of faith”
(Romans 16:26) by believing it and acting as if it is so, because it is.
There is the secret of our WALK
IN THE SPIRIT, discovering who we really are. We have come back home at
last as the branch in the Vine and the Vine in the branch. Remember, “Abiding”
in John 15 is, in the Greek, just ‘remaining.’ We remain by simple
faith-recognition. Our sanctification or walk in the Spirit is realized the
same as our salvation is realized, BY FAITH, by believing. Only when
we are consciously weak, as Paul said, then His strength is perfectly
manifested. When we fear, He is the courage. When we dislike, He is the
love. And Paul goes as far as to say he personally takes pleasure in
negative situations of weakness, hurts, needs, problems, for when he is
weak, then he is strong.
Today we are just so bogged down
in taking ourselves for granted as normal functioning people and we are so
used to preserving an image that it is a second spiritual breakthrough for
us to grasp the fact of helplessness. In our salvation we had come to
acknowledge that we had not kept God’s law and were guilty sinners.
But it is another thing, after becoming a Christian, to discover and admit
in our sanctification that we are also helpless saints. We can’t do
it and not only can’t but are not meant to.
That is the whole meaning of Paul
saying we can have dominion over sin because we are not under the law. This
is why there is that important chapter of Romans 7, which has been such a
ground of puzzlement and controversy. Chapter 6 he says in Christ’s death
we are cut off from the former control of the spirit of self-centeredness, “dead
to sin.” In Romans 8 we see His Spirit replacing that former
spirit in us and joins us to Christ in resurrection life. In between
chapter 6 and chapter 8, chapter 7 says we are not only dead to sin, but
also dead to the law. Why? Because if we are to function as living sons,
we must know once and for all in what sense our human selves can be
manifestations of Christ.
So, in Romans 7 we see the human
self that now has God’s Spirit and delights in His law in the inward man and
wills to do it and serves the law of God with the renewed mind. But what a
seemingly sad discovery is made. He can’t do it. He just can’t do it. His
discovery is he can’t do it because of “sin”
in him. Sin in him is the spirit of self-sufficiency.
The moment we humans, not
recognizing Christ in us as the only keeper of His own law, want ourselves
to keep it and slip into this old habit of thinking we can do it, then down
we fall. We can’t do what we would and find ourselves doing what we should
not. Oh wretched man! And the law of God stands there to demand of us that
we keep it, if we think we can! Then at last it dawns on us. Our human
self is now a container of ANOTHER SELF, Christ, the Spirit of
Christ.
We never were meant as humans to
keep God’s laws of self-giving love. Left to our human selves we can only
be ourselves and love ourselves. That is who we are without the
exchanged life - we are a self-loving self. But this is just why Christ
has come into us – to REPLACE the spirit of self-centeredness by
which we have lived, “the flesh.”
By ourselves we would still remain self-loving selves, but we are not our
old selves any more. We are a “new creation”
in Christ. By inner union, Christ is our real self.
So what do we do now? We tell the
law it is no good its shouting at us, because we can’t fulfill it, were
never meant to; but we contain the One Who can and does. So the law has not
a thing more to say to us or demand of us. We are “dead
to the law” in Christ. And now we are free by simple recognition
that Christ in us, Christ as us, keeps His own law in us, so that “the
righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us” who are now walking
by inner recognition of the Spirit and not recognition of that old
self-effort.
It is your choice. Choose to WALK IN THE SPIRIT.
But We Can Improve ...
I do believe that a Christian can
improve, not in merit, but in knowledge, i.e. intimate, experiential
relationship knowledge of the indwelling Christ. As we study the Word of
God and see what the Word tells us about Him and about who we are in Him, by
grace through faith we come progressively to maturity in Him, not in
personal worthiness, but in a knowing relationship with Him.
The primary thing is as Paul says, “to
know Him.” This knowledge becomes our experience by faith.
Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to
please Him, for he who comes to God must believe
(have faith)
that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who
seek Him (not merit).”
1John 3:22 “and whatever we ask we receive
from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are
pleasing in His sight. 23 This is His commandment, that we believe in
the name (or have faith in Who
He is) of His Son
Jesus Christ and love one another, just as He commanded us.”
Relationship growth is not only possible but is predestined. Romans 8 29
For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined
to become conformed to the image of His Son- “To
know Him is eternal life” or a quality of life that I could have
in no other way but by “knowing”
Him.
Of course, we keep His commandments
because He said, “If you love me you will
keep my commandments.” This is accomplished through “being
strong in the Lord and the power of His might.”
Whatever we do or accomplish is His accomplishment in us. 1Corinthians
15:10 – “But by the grace of God I am what I
am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than
all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.”
John even says, “The
one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this
that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” That
is the “how” of keeping His commandments, faith. 1John 5:2
By this we know that we love the children of God, when
we love God, and keep his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that
we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. 4 For
whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith.
In Romans, Paul refers to our obedience as the
“obedience of faith.”
As Paul told the Corinthians
“because it is by faith you stand firm.”
And “We live by faith, not by sight.”
Whatever we “need” in our Christian
walk, He is that in us. If I “need more” love, He is going to be that love
in me by the Holy Spirit. There really is no deficiency of love, just
deficiency of “knowing.” The better I know Him, the more I will in
relationship with Him express that love that He is in me by faith in what I
have come to know is true. Peter commends us to grow, not in merit, but in
knowledge (relationship knowledge). 1Peter 3:18 “grow
in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
If I “grow in grace” (unmerited favor), I am growing in my realization of my
unworthiness. If I grow in knowledge of Him, I learn He in me has all the
love I need. Romans 5:5 “because the love
of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was
given to us.” If I try to have a
natural love, the best I can do is love a worthy object. Romans 5: 7 “Now
it is an extraordinary thing for one to give his life even for an upright
man, though perhaps for a noble and lovable and generous benefactor someone
might even dare to die.” That is as much as natural love
can achieve. Natural love must have a worthy object. God's love
is the next verse - "But God
shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we
were still sinners, Christ died for us.
" So Paul says, in Galatians
5:6 The only thing that counts is faith
expressing itself through love. And “everything
that does not come from faith is sin.”
The wilderness wandering of the
children of God is depicted in Hebrews 3 and 4. They did not enter into the
“rest” that they were offered
because of their “unbelief” or
lack of faith. He says there remains a rest for the people of God and that
we are to “labor” (struggle), not to get better at doing, but to “rest” from
our sweaty efforts in the strength of the flesh and rely on the power of His
might.
For 25 years I tried to serve by
merit. If you had asked me, I would have denied it, but experiencing a
terrible “fall”, I discovered that I was actually a Pharisee for all those
years. I didn’t know I was until by my fall I thought I didn’t deserve to
live, as if I ever had deserved to live. Then I knew.
I had read all the Puritan books and
“Alarm to the Unconverted.” I read and preached the sermons of condemnation
and the call to “try harder.” I hurt a lot of people by setting them up to
fail, as any one has to fail who is “trying to DO better” in the flesh. I
thought the more I could know intellectually the better Christian I would
be, but I think Father was showing me the truth “so
that our faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.”
As Paul said, Our hope is that, as your
faith continues to grow, our area of activity among you will greatly expand.”
The doing comes on the heels of believing.
The next 25 years became for me an
opportunity to learn, experience and teach the faith-rest of the “easy yoke”
and the “burden that is light.” In the wake of the first 25 years there
were “bodies” lying all around. In the wake of the next 25 years I see
people serving God in a freeness and a joy that is indescribable. Addictive
personalities are no longer addicted. Abusive people stopped being
abusive. Immoral Christians stopped being immoral. Alcoholics are now
missionaries on the foreign field. Church dropouts are now active leaders
in their churches. People who knew nothing but failure are now living a
life of joy, peace, and successful witness for Christ.
I tell you, I am hooked. This is
the most blessed ministry I have ever known and I will by the grace of God
never stop as long as He gives me breath. Can I say it better? I have no
doubt that someone else could say it better than I (perhaps my clients, the
very ones that I have been referring to in this writing.) I do apologize
for my poor ability, but I will not apologize for what I believe to be the
truth of CHRIST IN US. As I tell my clients, I will keep working by
His grace and His power so that Christ may
dwell in your hearts through faith.
Ephesians 4:13 until we all reach unity
in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature,
attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
Click here to read ABIDE IN CHRIST by Andrew
Murray
Click here to read about HOW TO
BREAK BAD HABITS
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