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I want to use these words: "My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have," as the words of absolute surrender with which every child of God ought to yield himself to his Father.
Praise God! If our hearts are willing for that, there is no end to what God will do for us, and to the blessing God will bestow.
"Absolute surrender to God is the one thing."
#1 need of the Church. Then and now.
God is life, and love, and blessing, and power, and infinite beauty, and God delights to communicate Himself to every child who is prepared to receive Him;
God does not ask you to give the perfect surrender in your strength, or by the power of your will; God is willing to work it in you.
pray you, learn to know and trust your God now.
"My God, I am willing that Thou shouldst make me willing."
Have you never yet learned the lesson that the Holy Spirit works with mighty power, while on the human side everything appears feeble?
When God has begun the work of absolute surrender in you, and when God has accepted your surrender, then God holds Himself bound to care for it and to keep it. Will you believe that?
If God allows the sun to shine upon you moment by moment, without intermission, will not God let His life shine upon you every moment?
it is a life that with men is absolutely impossible.
we are called to come out from the world that hates God.
For the joy set before Him He endured the cross.
Give yourselves up to love, and the Holy Spirit will come; receive the Spirit, and He will teach you to love more.
More Lord!
Mankind Needs Love Why is that so? That was the one great need of mankind, that was the thing which Christ's redemption came to accomplish: to restore love to this world.
"Learn to love each other," said Christ, "as I have loved you."
And now He calls us to dwell and to walk in love. He demands that though a man hate you, still you love him.
Amen.
True love cannot be conquered by anything in Heaven or upon the earth.
Do we not begin to fear that love has fled from the earth? That if we were to ask the world: "Have you seen us wear the badge of love?" the world would say: "No;
has fled from the earth? That if we were to ask the world: "Have you seen us wear the badge of love?" the world would say: "No;
Self is our greatest curse. But, praise God, Christ came to redeem us from self.
And there you have the reason why many people pray for the power of the Holy Spirit, and they get something, but oh, so little! because they prayed for power for work, and power for blessing, but they have not prayed for power for full deliverance from self.
Loving my brother is the way to real fellowship with God.
We talk about grieving the Spirit of God by worldliness and ritualism and formality and error and indifference, but, I tell you, the one thing above everything that grieves God's Spirit is this lack of love.
If we want to pray in power, and if we want to expect the Holy Spirit to come down in power, and if we want indeed that God shall pour out His Spirit, we must enter into a covenant with God that we love one another with a heavenly love.
Do you know what the hardest and the most important work is that has to be done for this sinful world? It is the work of intercession, the work of going to God and taking time to lay hold on Him.
Let me ask you in the name of Jesus not to let a day pass without praying for all saints, and for all God's people.
Lord, I ask that you strengthen all your children, & call them to worship you in Spirit & in Truth.
God in Heaven has wishes, and a will, in regard to any work that ought to be done, and to the way in which it has to be done.
And so let our first desire be to have the will of God revealed.
And that is the law of the kingdom―the King upon the throne, the servants upon the footstool. May God find us there unceasingly!
The Holy Spirit has not only power, but He has the Spirit of love. He is brooding over this dark world and every sphere of work in it, and He is willing to bless. And why is there not more blessing? There can be but one answer. We have not honored the Holy Spirit as we should have done.
Peter the fisherman knew there were no fish there, for they had been toiling all night and had caught nothing; but he said: "At thy word I will let down the net" (Luke 5:4,5).
It's faith not knowledge that pleases God. Why do we think that everything must make sense to us?
Peter was a splendid man, a devoted disciple of Jesus, and if he were living nowadays, everyone would say that he was an advanced Christian. And yet how much there was wanting in Peter!
There was Peter in his self-will, trusting his own wisdom, and actually forbidding Christ to go and die. Whence did that come? Peter trusted in himself and his own thoughts about divine things.
Peter meant it honestly, and Peter really intended to do it; but Peter did not know himself. He did not believe he was as bad as Jesus said he was.
What are we to do with that flesh that is entirely under the power of sin? Deliverance from that is what we need.
There is no choice for us; we must either deny self or deny Christ.
I do not think we can realize into what a depth of humiliation Peter sank then.
I read again how he says: "Hereunto ye are called, to suffer, even as Christ suffered" (1 Pet. 2:21). I understand what a change had come over Peter. Instead of denying Christ, he found joy and pleasure in having self denied and crucified and given up to the death.
"We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29),
Christ gave this blessed answer: "The things which are impossible with men are possible with God."
Amen.
A good many Christians are living a low life, a life of failure and of sin, instead of rest and victory, because they began to see: "I cannot, it is impossible."
But God leads His children on to a third stage,
"Lord, what is the meaning of this?―how am I to be freed from the power of sin?"
"It is impossible for me, my God; let there be an end of the flesh and all its powers, an end of self, and lot it be my glory to be helpless."
Fall down and learn that when you are utterly helpless, God will come to work in you not only to will, but also to do.
He was strong in faith, giving glory to God, because he accounted Him who had promised able to perform.
He is able to let you rise from bed every morning of the week with that blessed thought directly or indirectly: "I am in God's charge. My God is working out my life for me."
All around you there is a world of sin and sorrow, and the Devil is there. But remember, Christ is on the throne, Christ is stronger, Christ has conquered, and Christ will conquer.
Never pray without adoring His omnipotence, saying: "Mighty God, I claim Thine almightiness."
This prayer is for our sakes. It doesn't make God stronger, like in stories, it makes our faith stronger!
