Resurrection

                            

1Ti 6:12  Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

Resurrection is the supreme proof of the power of God.

You do not need that I say much about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

When He was on that cross everything was done to make sure that He was dead. After they had nailed Him, hands and feet, on to the cross, to make sure that He was dead they thrust the spear into His heart.

When He was taken down from the cross and put into the tomb, the high priest said: 'Take a guard and make sure,' so that great stone was rolled against the tomb and the official seal was put on the stone. Then they mounted a guard of soldiers.

What more could be done to make sure that He was dead? Well, everything that men and devils could do – and then, over all that, it says: "This Jesus did God raise up" (Acts 2:32).

What an immense thing resurrection is!

And all the potentialities of the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus are given to the child of God. 

We can go right on to the end because we have His Life. Until the Lord says: 'It is enough: come up higher!' there is no need for any child of God to die. Death and life are in the hands of God. 

How many wonderful experiences we may have of this divine Life!

We may make a lot of other manifestations of the power of God and they may all be quite wonderful – we will never take anything from what is of the Holy Spirit – but when we have said all, the supreme thing is "the power of His resurrection."That is the birthright of the child of God and something that you and I may be knowing now and all the days of our life.

Lay hold on the life eternal, whereunto thou wast called.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Live and Walk In The Spirit

                                                   

That which is called Christianity is essentially a spiritual thing, and not an earthly order or system, and every fragment of it has to be entered into in a spiritual way, by way of Life and Revelation

There is all the difference between imitation and Life 

Oh, what a difference there is between seeing a thing in an objective way and coming into it in Life! It is just there that the wonder, the glory, the vitality, the energy, the power of things is found. 

You have perhaps talked for years about things in the Word of God, as in the Word of God, and you believed them and gave them out as truth, and after doing that for years suddenly you saw what they meant, and the whole thing came in another way.

All your talking, and preaching, and believing before was quite true, quite right, correct as to doctrine, but what effect had it on you? Now that it has broken like this it is transfiguring, and has brought real joy and delight, life and ecstasy. That is what we mean by entering into things by Life and by Revelation. In other words, it is coming into things by the Spirit and seeing....

If we become spiritual in this sense, if the Holy Spirit is the commanding reality in our life, and we are walking by the Spirit, we are bound inevitably to come into all God's thought. 

The Lord wants a people to come into His full thought. That is only possible as they cease to be governed by some outward order of things, and learn what it is to move with God in the Holy Spirit.

~T. Austin Sparks~

FIRM To The End

Unbelief in even its slightest form is hateful to God. It is a damning sin, one that destroys the soul. It hinders God's work in us and is the sin behind all departure from God.

You can be totally weaned from all worldly possessions and long for Jesus' coming. You can sit under strong preaching and sing God's praises in His house. And you can devour the Word of God every day. But unless you are praying, "Oh, God, let me hear this word in my inner man; let me believe I can apply it and that it will become life to me," then it has no effect whatsoever. What you hear must be mingled with faith.

But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it Hebrews 4:2. Let those words sink in: "Unless what you read and hear preached is mixed with faith, it is of no value to you!"

Scripture says, "[Jesus] was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house" Hebrews 3:2. In what way was their faithfulness measured? How were they truly faithful in all things?

They were counted faithful because they never doubted the heavenly Father's word to them. They knew that God would do what He said. You see, faithfulness is simply believing that God will keep His Word.

In this sense, Jesus and Moses held “the beginning of [their] confidence steadfast unto the end" (Hebrews 3:14). They did not have an up-and-down, hot-and-cold kind of faith.
Their faith never wavered!

Just as Jesus was faithful in His confidence in the Father, our faithfulness will be measured by the same standard: "But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end" (Hebrews 3:6).

As our trials increase and the battle grows more intense, our flesh can become weary. Over time, many Christians allow fear and doubt to creep in. They lose their abandonment to God, their childlike faith in Him, and questioning invades their hearts.

As I look down the road that remains of my life, I see limited time. And I want more than anything to be rejoicing in hope, firm to the end.

~David Wilkerson~

A TROUBLED HEART

                                                                                                                                               
Jesus said, "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27). But the fact is, many Christians do have troubled hearts and they live in fear. Jesus also said in the same verse, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." Yet few believers can honestly say they enjoy constant peace of mind. For many, peace comes and goes, leaving them worried, restless and battered by stress.

Here is what Zacharias prophesied of the coming Messiah: That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life 
Luke 1:74-75

Beloved, Jesus came to this earth and died for sinful man so that we could walk with God without fear, enjoying His peace all the days of our lives.

No fear, just peace of mind and heart for all of our days! This includes good and bad days, days of suffering, turmoil, testing and uncertainty. No matter what comes our way, we are to enjoy peace at all times.

Zacharias added these words about Jesus: "To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace" (verse 79). He was saying that Jesus would guide all His children into the path of peace, not into restlessness, emptiness or fear.

Jesus is the Prince of Peace. At His birth the angels sang, Peace on earth! His gospel is called the gospel of peace and He promised of Himself, "In Me ye [shall] have peace"John 16:33. Peace is what the gospel is all about. "The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ" Acts 10:36

In this world we will face tribulation, persecution and fiery trials—"without were fightings, within were fears," according to Paul (2 Corinthians 7:5). We will be tempted, we will suffer for the sake of Christ, and the winds of adversity will try to topple the house of faith we build on the Rock of our salvation, Jesus, but we will walk in peace because of Him.

~David Wilkerson~
 

The I AM Shall

Joh 6:35  And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

I am the bread of life (John 6:35). “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:14). “I am the true vine” (John 15:1). “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). Here is the great I AM saying what He is.

And then you notice how frequently He links with that a ‘shall’. The ‘shalls’ of the ‘I am's’ in John’s Gospel are tremendously impressive – not always using the exact word, but in the context you will find the same conclusion. 

But here are some of the ‘shalls’. “I am the bread of life... he that eats this bread shall live for ever” (John 6:58). “I am the light of the world; he that follows Me shall not walk in darkness” (John 8:12). 

The link between what He is and ourselves is this, “he that believeth on Me.” What I AM shall become true of him. “He that believeth on Me shall never die” (John 11:26), “...shall not hunger” (John 6:35), shall never wander like sheep without a shepherd, he shall have a governing, controlling reality like a shepherd in his life. “Shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

What I AM shall become true. “I am the resurrection, and the life; he that believeth on Me, though he die, yet shall he live; and whosoever lives and believes on Me shall never die.”

What I AM is made good when you believe.

Now it is not what we are. I am dead; He is alive. I can never be other than dead, but He as the Life can become Life in me in my death, if only I believe.

I am hungry, spiritually starved; He is Bread, and I need never hunger; although I shall always hunger in myself, yet He will become the Bread to supply me. Think of it! I need never hunger.

I am down there in the country, isolated, getting no fellowship, no food; I am away in some place where there is no spiritual bread, and He says, “He that eats Me shall never hunger.” Is that dependent upon where I am, what my situation and circumstances are as to available spiritual meat? No, it is Himself, not a place; it is Himself, not circumstances. But how can it be? – “He that believes.”

~T. Austin Sparks~

IF You SEEK HIM

                                                                               
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly" (Matthew 6:6).

When Jesus speaks of going into a secret closet to seek the Father, He is talking about something much greater than a physical closet. The Old Testament tells us God divided His people into two categories: those who regularly seek Him in their secret place of prayer, and those who do not.

When God became angry with Israel over their idolatry, Moses pitched his prayer tent outside the camp. Scripture says, "It came to pass, that every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp" (Exodus 33:7). In the midst of all the idolatry taking place in Israel, God’s people still took time to seek the Lord. 

This seeking remnant knew they had to go outside the camp lest they, too, fall into the apostasy sweeping over the people.

Centuries later, the people under King Asa understood why God blessed and prospered them and kept them at peace with all their enemies: "Because we have sought the Lord our God . . he hath given us rest on every side. So they built and prospered" (2 Chronicles 14:7).

At one point during Asa's reign, an army of one million Ethiopians came against Israel. "And Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said . . . O Lord, thou art our God; let not man prevail against thee. So the Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa and the Ethiopians fled. They were destroyed before the Lord" (verses 11-13). When Asa was attacked, he fell on his face and turned to God in prayer—and God answered with victory.

Shortly after that triumph, however, Azariah the prophet came to Asa and said: "The Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you" (15:2). In other words: "If you stop seeking after God and calling on His name in all you do, He will forsake you."

Every time Israel sought the Lord after that, God blessed them: "When they in their trouble did turn unto the Lord the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found of them" (15:4). Israel enjoyed rest when they sought God in prayer and He always delivered them and gave them order and strength.

~David Wilkerson~

DON'T BE A MULE!

I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule,which have not understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee Psalm 32:8-9

In these two brief verses God gives us a great lesson concerning guidance. We can build a great faith upon the foundation of knowing that He is willing to lead and guide us in everything.

Yet the Word of God says a person may be a believer who enjoys all the spiritual benefits of being a child of God and yet remain a stubborn mule when it comes to submitting to His ways of guiding and leading. God said of Israel, "Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways" (Psalm 95:10).

Think of what God was saying: "After forty long years of receiving My tender guidance and miraculous deliverances, they still don’t have the slightest idea of the way I work. They never even try to understand My principles of guidance. To them, My leadings are just a series of unrelated blessings, nothing more than open doors and escapes from crises."

Personally, I am tired of being a mule-headed Christian with no understanding of the principles of God’s leading. I do not want God to say of me, "Yes, David was forgiven. He prayed and I delivered him from trouble, time after time. Indeed, I led him in wonderful ways and My hand was upon him. But in his heart he never had a settled knowledge of My ways."

Beloved, don’t make the Lord be stern with you in His leadings. 

Don’t be as the mule, without understanding. 

God does not want to bark directions at His children or have to force us to do His bidding. 

God wants a people who know Him well enough to move at His slightest urging.

~David Wilkerson~