◄ ►

Tremendous Repercussion in the Church

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, as you go, disciple people in all nations. (Matthew 28:18,19 ISV)

But who is to go? It is the Church, and His irreducible nucleus of the Church is two. It is a corporate thing, the bringing of the significance of the Body into view. When there is a functioning in the Spirit, it is nothing less than Christ risen, ascended and exalted, going on with His work through His Body, with all those limitations dismissed. That is tremendous! It is either true, or it is not true. If it is true, it is an immense thing. If it is not, well, what fools we are! But here it is, and, oh! that the Church might learn more of what it means to be in living union with a risen Christ! That there should be a company, two or three or more, though limited physically here on this earth by time and space, yet really functioning in the Holy Spirit, so that the universal Christ all that it means that He is there at God right hand is having some expression! I would to God that this could come home to you by the Spirit and that you could grasp it, for what differences it would make! We have a long way to go yet before this is appreciated adequately. But it is true!

When you touch these things, human language is a vain instrument for expression. he exceeding greatness of His powerthe superlatives in this realm! Oh, for this enlargement by a new apprehension of the greatness of Christ in His Person, in His death, in His resurrection! Well, then, the supreme thing the New Testament shows is that the Church on its true, spiritual basis corresponds to Christ risen. Not "the Church" that we know here on earth, for it does not. But God thought about the Church is not an impossible and merely idealistic one. It is a practical thing. Two saints, simple, humble and unimportant in this world, but really meeting together in the Spirit, can be a functioning instrument of Him to whom has been committed all authority in heaven and on earth. With them all these old limitations can be dismissed and they can at one moment touch all the ends of the earth. Do you believe that? That is really the meaning of our glorying in Christ risen. It has to be something more than emotion, and more than glorious doctrine; yes, more than a truth to which we give some assent.... If it is true that we are one with a risen, enthroned Lord, it ought to have tremendous repercussions. May it be so!

He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world …

That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.

God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you … for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. § Whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. § Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. § God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.

Eph. 1:4;  2 Thess. 2:13,14;  Rom. 8:29,30;  1 Peter 1:2;  Ezek. 36:26;  1 Thess. 4:7

If the Lord would make windows in heaven, could this thing be?

Have faith in God. § Without faith it is impossible to please Him. § With God all things are possible.

Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver?

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” § “Try Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.”

Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. § Lord, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power.

We should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.

2 Kings 7:2;  Mark 11:22;  Heb. 11:6;  Matt. 19:26;  Isa. 50:2;  Isa. 55:8,9;  Mal. 3:10;  Isa. 59:1;  2 Chron. 14:11;  2 Cor. 1:9

Ex-prodigals

Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy" (Lk. 15:21a).

From prodigals, our Father has made us possessors. "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light" (Col. 1:12).

"If I, once a lost prodigal, want to know the measure of my acceptance with the Father, He alone defines it for me. It is only as I know what the Lord Jesus is to the Father in glory that I can in any degree truly estimate my own acceptance in Him: Had He my sins laid on Him? How is He now accepted? For as He is now accepted, so am l; and therefore it is the Gospel of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Try for your own acceptance, and it will always be a dubious and imperfect thing. Get to understand His acceptance, and your soul will be enlarged into all the fulness and blessedness not only of His, but of your own, because you are in Him.'" -J.B.S.

"Many are looking to find some good in themselves, and in most cases without being conscious that they are doing so. Effort, disappointment, self-reproaches, and self-occupation, make up the weary round of their lives, with now and then, perhaps, a gleam of spiritual happiness. No man's heart will ever be gladdened by the joy of divine acceptance until he has learned that there is not a single bit about him, as a man in the flesh, that does not deserve the judgment of God." -C.A.C.

"It is a wonderful moment when by faith we appropriate and occupy our position in the favor of the Father - when we know that we are received by Him in all the acceptance of His Son. We do not then think of ourselves, or our unworthiness, at all. We think of the Lord Jesus - His perfections, His suitability to divine favor, His infinite acceptance with the Father - and by faith we have access into the favor of which He is so worthy." -C.A.C.

"But the Father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe" (Lk. 15:22a).

Indwelling Power

Paul’s Potant Prayer