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July 7 - July 10, 2019
In the carnal man there is something of the spiritual nature, but you know that things often get their names from their most prominent characteristic or quality.
the minister drew a line with his stick in the sand, and on the one side he wrote the words sin, death, and hell, and on the other side of the line he wrote Christ, life, and heaven.
The old man asked, “What are you doing?” The minister answered: “Listen! Do you think one of these letters on the left side could get up and go over the line to the right side?” “Of course not,” was the answer. Then the minister said solemnly, “It’s just as unlikely for a sinner who is on the left side to get over to the right side. That line divides all mankind; those who are saved are on the right side, and the unsaved are on the left side. It is Christ who must take you from the left side to the right side. On what side are you?”
if you are still carnal, go to the left side and say, “O God, I must confess that my Christian life is for the most part carnal, under the power of the flesh.” Then I would plead with you and tell you that you cannot save yourself from the flesh, or even get rid of it, but if you come and accept Christ in you right now, He can lift you over into the new life. You belong to Christ, and He belongs to you; but what you need is simply to cast yourselves upon Him, and He will reveal the power of His crucifixion in you, to give you victory over the flesh. Cast yourselves, with the confession of sin
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lastly, he must take the decisive step in the faith that Christ is able to keep him.
Remember the story of Caleb and Joshua and the spies (Numbers 13). Ten men said in effect, “We can never conquer those people.” Two men said, “We are able, for God has promised.” Step out now upon the promises of God. Listen to God’s Word: For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ, Jesus, has made me free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2).
do not be concerned if you have no new experience, no feeling, no excitement, and no light, but apparent darkness. Come and stand upon the Word of the everlasting God.
The great lesson is that the Holy Spirit is the director of the work of God upon the earth. What we need to do if we are to work rightly for God and if God is to bless our work is (1) stand in a right relationship with the Holy Spirit, (2) give Him the place of honor that belongs to Him, and (3) allow the Holy Spirit to have first place in all our work and in all our private inner life.
First of all, we see that God has His own plans regarding His kingdom.
Let us do God’s work in His way, and not try to work for Him in our own way.
God is willing and able to reveal His will to His servants.
the guiding of the Holy Spirit is known; but we are all ready, I think, to confess that we know far too little of His leading. We have not learned to wait upon Him. We need to make our solemn declaration before God, “O God, we want to wait more for You to show us Your will.”
We make our own plans, say a quick prayer, and think that we are doing God’s will His way. Instead, let us take our place before God and seek His will.
When people are confused or uncertain of what to do, they often pray very earnestly that God would answer them at once. But God can only reveal His will to a heart that is humble and tender and empty.
Notice the nature of those to whom the Spirit reveals God’s will. What do we read here in Acts 13? A number of men ministered to the Lord and fasted, and the Holy Spirit came and spoke to them.
At Antioch they were empty, ignorant, helpless, glad, and joyful, but deeply humbled. “O Lord,” they seem to say, “we are Your servants, and in fasting and prayer we wait upon You. What is Your will for us?”
May we realize that it is in hearts entirely surrendered to the Lord Jesus, in hearts separated from the world and ordinary religious exercises, and in hearts given to intense prayer to their Lord – that the heavenly will of God will be made manifest.
When you pray, you love to go into your closet (a place of privacy and without distractions), according to the command of Jesus, and shut the door. You shut out business and company and pleasure and anything that can distract, and you want to be alone with God.
What is now the will of God as the Holy Spirit reveals it? It is contained in one phrase: separation unto the Holy Spirit.
You know that there are two spirits on earth.
Paul said, We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God (1 Corinthians 2:12).
That is the great need in every worker – the spirit of the world going out, and the Spirit of God coming in to take possession of the inner life and of the whole being.
God wants us to seek for the Holy Spirit as a Spirit of power in our own heart and life to conquer self and cast out sin and work the blessed and beautiful image of Jesus into us.
A person who is separated unto the Holy Spirit is one who can and does sincerely say, “Father, may the Holy Spirit have full dominion over me: in my home, in my character, in every word of my tongue, in every thought of my heart, in every feeling towards my fellowmen; may the Holy Spirit have entire possession.”
Please Lord!
May God grant that His Word may enter into the very depths of our being to search us, and if we discover that our hearts have not left the world entirely, if God reveals to us that we still cling to the self-life, self-will, self-exaltation, let us humble ourselves before Him.
This holy partnership with the Holy Spirit in His work becomes a matter of consciousness and of action.
They had for a certain time, perhaps for days, ministered to the Lord and fasted; then the Holy Spirit spoke, and they did the work and entered into partnership, and at once they came together for more prayer and fasting.
But, we are far more occupied with our work than we are with prayer. We believe more in speaking to men than we believe in speaking to God. Doesn’t this convict us when we are too busy to pray or rush through prayer in order to get on with our work or are so caught up with work that we never sit at the feet of Jesus?
If we felt and proved and testified to the world that our only strength is our contact with Christ every minute, every moment allowing God to work in us – if that were our spirit, by the grace of God, wouldn’t our lives be holier?
A terrible danger in Christian work, just as in a Christian life that is begun with much prayer and in the Holy Spirit, is that it may be gradually diverted to the flesh; and the Word comes, Having begun by the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
The Holy Spirit comes in answer to believing prayer.
Why isn’t there more blessing? There can be only one answer. We have not honored the Holy Spirit as we should have done.
Every thoughtful and sincere heart should be ready to cry out, “God, forgive me that I have not honored the Holy Spirit as I should have done, that I have grieved Him, that I have allowed self and the flesh and my own will to work where the Holy Spirit should have been honored. May You forgive me that I have allowed self and the flesh and the will to have the place that You intended for the Holy Spirit.” Oh, the sin is greater than we know.
Christ had said to him, Thou canst not follow me now (John 13:36). Peter was not in a proper state to follow Christ, because he had not been brought to the end of himself; he did not know himself, and he therefore could not follow Christ. But when he went out and wept bitterly, then came the great change. Christ previously said to him, When thou art converted, strengthen Your brethren (Luke 22:32). As Peter wept bitterly, he reached the point where he was converted from self to Christ.
Christ called Peter to forsake his nets and follow Him. Peter did it at once,
Peter was also a man of true obedience. Remember, Jesus said to him, Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch (Luke 5:4). Peter the fisherman knew there were no fish there, for they had been fishing all night and had caught nothing; but he said, At Your word I will let down the net
Peter was a man of great faith. When he saw Christ walking on the sea, he said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me to come unto thee; and at the voice of Christ, he stepped out of the boat and walked upon the water
Peter was a man of spiritual insight. When Christ asked the disciples, But who say ye that I am? Peter was able to answer, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Look next at Peter living the life of self, pleasing self, trusting self, and seeking the honor of self.
Self must be ignored and its every claim rejected. That is the root of true discipleship,
Notice how Christ used that word deny twice. He told Peter the first time to deny self. He said to Peter the second time, Thou shalt deny Me. It is either one or the other. There is no other choice for us; we must either deny self or deny Christ.
I do not want you to think that you can only see the change in Peter in that boldness and power and insight into the Scriptures and the blessing with which he preached that day. Thank God for that, but there was something for Peter that was deeper and better. Peter’s whole nature was changed.
when I read his book that we call 1 Peter and I hear him say, If ye are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are ye; for the glory and the Spirit of God rests upon you, then I know that is not the old Peter but the very Spirit of Christ breathing and speaking within him (1 Peter 4:14).
Because for this were ye called: for the Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps, I understand what a change had come over Peter (1 Peter 2:21). Instead of denying Christ, he found joy and pleasure in having denied and crucified and given up “self” to death.
He was changed from the self-pleasing, self-trusting, self-seeking Peter to the man filled with the Spirit and the life of Jesus. Christ had done it for Him by the Holy Spirit, and He can do it for you, too.
It is the work of our blessed Lord Jesus to reveal the power of self in us.
“Yes, that is the problem with me; it is always the self-life, and self-comfort, and self-consciousness, and self-pleasing, and self-will; how am I to get rid of it?” My answer is that Jesus Christ can rid you of it; no one else but Jesus can give deliverance from the power of self. What does He ask you to do? He asks only that you should humble yourself before Him.
the condition of God’s blessing is absolute surrender of all into His hands.
your God in heaven answers the prayers, which you have offered for blessing on yourselves and for blessing around you, by this one demand: are you willing to surrender yourselves absolutely into His hands?
God claims it, God is worthy of it, and without it, God cannot work His blessed work in us.
The only thing I don't agree with is when he says, God can't do it. I think what he really means is that God won't do it otherwise.
