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The Nature of True Ministry

We were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1:8,9)

It is a part of the nature of things that we never learn in a vital way by information. We really only come into the good of things by being "pressed out of measure." So the Lord has to take much time to make spiritual history. When at length our eyes are open, we cry, "Oh, why did I not see it before!" But everything else had to prove insufficient before we could really be shown, and that takes time. Thus it was that we were turned in that dark hour to Romans chapter six, and, almost as though He spoke in audible language, the Lord said: "When I died, you died. When I went to the Cross I not only took your sins, but I took you. When I took you, I not only took you as the sinner that you might regard yourself to be, but I took you as being all that you are by nature; your good (?) as your bad; your abilities as well as your disabilities; yes, every resource of yours. I took you as a 'worker,' a 'preacher,' an organizer! My Cross means that not even for Me can you be or do anything out from yourself, but if there is to be anything at all it must be out from Me, and that means a life of absolute dependence and faith."

At this point, therefore, we awoke to the fundamental principle of our Lord's own life while here, and it became the law of everything for us from that time. That principle was: "nothing of (out from) Himself", but "all things of (out from) God." "The Son can do nothing of (out from) Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing: for what things soever He doeth, then the Son also doeth in like manner" (John 5:19). Such a revelation, if it is to be a staggering and breaking thing, so that there is no strength left in us, requires a background of much vain effort. But then, it carries with it a great implication. While an end is written large in the Cross, and while that end is to be accepted as our end indeed, so that there can be no more of anything so far as we are concerned, Jesus lives! And that means boundless possibilities.

Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

It pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. § Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? § We judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. § He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God.

Rom. 14:9;  Isa. 53:10,11;  Luke 24:26;  2 Cor. 5:14,15;  Acts 2:36;  1 Peter 1:20,21

Give us this day our daily bread.

I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread. § His … bread will be given him, his water will be sure. § The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook.

My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. § Be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna … that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. § Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”

Matt. 6:11;  Ps. 37:25;  Isa. 33:16;  1 Kings 17:6;  Phil. 4:19;  Heb. 13:5;  Deut. 8:3; John 6:32;  Isa. 6:33;  Isa. 6:34

Baptized Into-Filled With

  For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Gal. 3:27).

The Holy Spirit baptizes us into the Lord Jesus, and fills us with Him.

"The one spiritual baptism positions the believer in Christ' (Rom. 6:3, 4; Gal. 3:27; Col. 2:12), and into His Body (1 Cor. 12:13). Since this position in the Lord Jesus is unchangeable, and eternal, the baptizing work of the Spirit is not repeatable. One in Christ' positionally, can never again through all eternity be out of Christ' positionally, as that position depends wholly upon the efficacy of the finished redemptive work of the Son, and does not hinge upon human merit or faithfulness.

"The filling with the Spirit, on the other hand, is repeatable (Acts 2:4; 4:8, 31; 9:17), and is, in fact, a continuous process, as it conditions mutable experience, and has nothing whatever to do with immutable position. Christian position is effected by the baptism of the Spirit at the moment of the new birth. Christian experience is affected by the filling with the Holy Spirit. One effects our position, the other affects our condition." -M.U.

"The Holy Spirit gives a living knowledge; His light is the light of life; He is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.' We see the Father and the Son as seeing us. When we behold them by the ministry of the Spirit it is as beholding us with infinite love, and bestowing upon us the blessings of grace. We know because we are known. Thou Father, Thou Son, seest me' is the immediate consciousness of the soul, when there is spiritual perception of the Father. In other words, love, petition, listening to the Father's voice, receiving the love and peace of the Lord Jesus, fellowship, are invoked in this knowledge." -A.S.

"The communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all" (2 Cor. 13:14).

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Exhort and Encourage