Isa 43:10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me

Friday, July 26, 2013

A LOVING PURPOSE

                                          

Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.  Psalm 35:27

What is "prosperity?"


Is it threads of life weaved into a bright outcome? a full cup? ample riches? worldly applause? an unbroken circle?

No! these are often a snare; received without gratitude; dimming the soul to its nobler destinies.

Often spiritually, it rather means God taking us by the hand into the lowly Valleys of Humiliation; leading us as He did His servant Job of old; out of his sheep, oxen, camels, health, wealth, children; in order that we may be brought before Him in the dust, and say, Blessed be His holy name!

Yes! The very reverse of what is generally known in the world as Prosperity forms the background on which the Rainbow of Promise is seen.


God smiles on us through these and teardrops of sorrows! He loves us too well. He has too great an interest in our spiritual welfare to permit us to live on in what is misnamed "Prosperity." 

When He sees duties languidly performed, or coldly neglected, the heart deadened, and love to Himself congealed by the absorbing power of the present world — He puts a thorn in our nest to drive us to the wing — and prevent our being grovelers forever!

I may not be able now to understand the mystery of these dealings. I may be asking through the tears, "Why this unkind arrest on my earthly happiness? Why so premature a lopping of my boughs of promise? Why such a speedy withering of my most cherished gourd?"


The answer is plain. It is your soul's prosperity which He has in view. Believe it.....your true Ebenezers will yet be raised close by your Zarephaths.

~John MacDuff~

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Shun Any Sort Of Idolatry

Shun (keep clear away from, avoid by flight if need be) any sort of idolatry (of loving or venerating anything more than God). 1 Corinthians 10:14 AMP

There are many things which are not only harmless but good in themselves, which have, nevertheless, been allowed to take the place of the Lord Himself, and good things can therefore embody the principle of idolatry in the one in whom the devotion is found.

Touch some Christians, or Christian institutions, and let the touch be even in relation to something more of the Lord Himself, and you will find an uprising of jealous regard for the institution which utterly blinds to that possibility of an extra measure of the Lord Himself.

You can be so devoted to a denomination, a missionary society, a piece of Christian work, that there is no room for any extra measure of the Lord.

The thing itself has become the end, the object for which you live, and when the Lord wants to get you moved on into something more of Himself, the obstacle is that good Christian work, association, institution, tradition, connection.

Yes, and that is idolatry in principle, and we see from history how the Lord again and again has had to smite with smashing blows things which in themselves were good, in order to save His people unto Himself personally....


What is He after? It is Himself which He is seeking to establish as the object of man's life, and not the things that have relation to Himself: and I say again, you meet something intensely fierce if you touch a thing, even though you are touching it maybe with a view to getting people to move on with the Lord Himself.

To put that in the other way, if your appeal for moving on with the Lord seems to people to involve their having to move away from this or that or some other thing, then there is warfare; which shows that Satan in his eternal campaign of idolatry, has got a footing amongst Christians in relation to things which take the place of the Lord Himself, good things though they be in themselves; and you find, if you are spiritually sensitive, that you are not just encountering the established institutions, but you are encountering a terrific spiritual force. 

Is that true? It is true. Had I never come up against it, never would I have believed the terrific force there is lying behind Christian institutions if your ministry touches them. 

You meet something which turns upon you, and it is not just the thing or the people. 

It is something that threatens your very life, to slay, and this in principle and essence, beloved, is idolatry; because its ultimate effect is that even the Lord cannot have what His heart is set upon and get His people spiritually where He wants them, because they are so bound up with His things.

They are not able to discriminate between His things and Himself.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Saturday, July 20, 2013

The Secret Strength Of Divine Purpose


Heb 13:20  Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,

Heb 13:21  Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

So long as we are in line with God’s purpose His work can go on in us. 

What matters is not first of all our activity. God is more concerned with what is done in us than what we do for Him.

He often reaches His end with us much better when we are in a state of inactivity than in times of much work. 

The hand of the Potter was upon Moses when he was in the wilderness where he could not do much. During forty years he was just looking after a few sheep. That is not very grand.

No doubt he wondered sometimes to what purpose he was there, whether his life had any value. 

But principalities and powers saw something and wondered at God’s wisdom.

God knew how to equip this man, how to get His way in that life. That is true in the case of many a servant of God. God is working for good, He is shaping His vessel. 

There is wisdom in all His dealings with us.

But we have to see to it that we have no plans or personal ambitions of our own.

The clay has to be completely in His hands. 

If we are really here for God, we can be assured that He will reach His end, that He may work out His purpose in us. And there we shall find strength.

Are you sure you are in the great purpose of God? Everybody has some part in it. Paul, when speaking of the church, illustrates it thus: “that all the body is fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplies. 

No part of the body is without function. Each and every one has to be in God’s purpose. Some parts may be very small, they nevertheless are equally important. We have to remember that  

God has called us for a purpose which will be realized as we abandon ourselves to Him.

Whatever it may be to which He has called us, let us be ready and do it. 

A Holy Spirit possessed life is always marked by purpose.

Nothing can be lost in such a life; let us not believe in mere generalities. That is not good enough. There is something far more definite in God’s thoughts for our lives.

Let us abandon all personal desires, and be filled with the Spirit of urgency “straight away.” 

Those who know that they are called of God, and who definitely recognize the purpose of their life, will be wholly given up to it. Such no longer have any interest for the things of this earth. 

They have no time to lose. They must buy up their time.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Sunday, July 14, 2013

The Fire of Provocation

Luk 12:49  I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?                                                                    

Luk 12:50  But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!

Luk 12:51  Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:

If you and I are going to be men and women of the Spirit, we are not going to have an easy time. 

Hell will see to that.

At once the clash arises and it is true that the more the Holy Spirit is able to have His way in us and to lead us into all the will of God, the more we find this opposition, this antagonism.

And it not only comes between us and the world, it sometimes comes in the circle of the Lord's own people. 

It is inevitable provocation.

You wonder why, sometimes. As you read the New Testament you wonder, "What is the matter with these people? Why should they be so upset and so annoyed? And why should it be so spontaneous, this thing? And persistent; so unreasonable?" but there it is. There is the fact. It is inevitable.

You see, this thing that the Lord came to do and is doing, will not allow for any neutrality. 

It is going to be one thing or the other. It is going to be for or against. 

The eyes of flame (here the fire comes in again) the eyes of flame will not allow lukewarmness or anything that is of the Laodicean character.

The fire is a positive element always, and it will create positive situations.

If everything is all just nice and quiet, no disturbance, no trouble and no antagonism and opposition, you have reason to question whether the Holy Spirit is doing much, because He does aim at such a positiveness, which is a very, very costly thing. 

It is either with the Lord, or not with the Lord, and there is nothing between. 

It is going to come out sooner or later and be precipitated. Now, the Lord says that is what He came to do.

This is not an accident, a chance or things having gone wrong or miscarried.This is exactly what He came to do – to scatter fire on the earth and these are the inevitable effects of the fire. They are going to work out.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

He Tests With Long Delays

                                    
                                
I called him but he did not answer.
Song of Songs 5:6
 

Once the Lord has given us great faith, He has been known to test it with long delays. He has allowed His servants’ voices to echo in their ears, as if their prayers were rebounding from a contemptuous sky.

Believers have knocked at the heavenly gate, but it has remained immovable, as though its hinges had rusted. And like Jeremiah, they have cried, “You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through” (Lam. 3:44).
 

True saints of God have endured lengthy times of patient waiting with no reply, not because their prayers were prayed without intensity, nor because God did not accept their pleas.
 

They were required to wait because it pleased Him who is sovereign and who gives “according to his good purpose” (Phil. 2:13).

And if it pleases Him to cause our patience to be exercised, should He not do as He desires with His own?
 

No prayer is ever lost, or any prayer ever breathed in vain. There is no such thing as prayer unanswered or unnoticed by God, and some things we see as refusals or denials are simply delays.  

~Horatius Bonar
 

Christ sometimes delays His help so He may test our faith and energize our prayers. 

Our boat may be tossed by the waves while He continues to sleep, but He will awake before it sinks.
 

Be still, sad soul! lift up no passionate cry, But spread the desert of your being bare to the full searching of the All-seeing eye; Wait! and through dark misgiving, deep despair, God will come down in pity, and fill the dry Dead place with light, and life, and springlike air.
 

~John Campbell Shairp

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Delayed Blessing Office

                                              

The revelation awaits an appointed time. . . .Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. 
(Habakkuk 2:3)
 

In the captivating booklet Expectation Corner, one of the characters, Adam Slowman,was led into the Lord’s treasure-house. Among the many wonders revealed to him there was the “Delayed Blessing Office,”where God stored the answers to certain prayers until it was wise to send them.
 

For some who pray expecting an answer, it takes a long time to learn that delays of answers are not denials. 

In fact, in the “Delayed Blessing Office,” there are deep secrets of love and wisdom that we have never imagined! 

We tend to want to pick our blessings from the tree while they are still green, yet God wants us to wait until they are fully ripe.
 

The Lord longs to be gracious to you. . . .Blessed are all who wait for him!” (Isa. 30:18).

The Lord watches over us in all the difficult places, and He will not allow even one trial that is too much for us.

He will use His refining fire to burn away our
impurities and will then gloriously come to our rescue.
 

Do not grieve Him by doubting His love. Instead, lift up your eyes and begin praising Him right now for the deliverance that is on its way to you.Then you will be abundantly rewarded for the delay that has tried your faith.
 

O you of little faith, God has not failed you yet!

When all looks dark and gloomy, You do so soon forgetForget that He has led you, And gently cleared your way; On clouds has poured His sunshine, And turned your night to day. And if He’s helped you to this point, He will not fail you now;
 

How it must wound His loving heart To see your anxious brow! Oh! doubt not any longer, To Him commit your way, Whom in the past you trusted, And is just the same today

~Selected~