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Paul’s Perfect Prayer - PAUL - Man of Prayer study (1)

A Walk in Life with the Lord

Let us go out to Him, outside the camp, and bear the disgrace He bore. (Hebrews 13:13 NLT)

We can organize our movements, lay our plans, and draft our schemes. We can lay it all out according to the New Testament and it can be dead, ineffective.... You see the difference between a traditional system, whether it be Judaism or Christianity, and a living thing coming all the time in a living way out from the Christ Himself by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit Himself doing it. Well, this is going to cost something. See what it meant for these people. At the end of this letter you come on this: herefore, Christ also... suffered without the camp. Let us therefore go to Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.The camp was Judaism, and He suffered without the camp because He repudiated Judaism and stood for the realization of all God thoughts as in Himself personally. He gathered up everything into His own person, am.It is the Christ who is the full sum and embodiment of all God thoughts and ways, and that takes the place of Judaism, and He, therefore, repudiated Judaism and suffered without the camp. "Let us go to Him without the camp."

What is the issue? If you are going to take this line you are going to repudiate organized Christianity, going to repudiate Christendom as a traditional system, going to repudiate that order of things which is made, and going, therefore, to suffer reproach and be outside of the camp suffering His reproach. In other words, we are immediately going to come up against that force of antagonism to stop what has come in through the death and resurrection and exaltation of the Lord Jesus, the heavenly thing. Is it not sad that these people met it through God historic people, the people who claimed to have the oracles, to be the elect, to be the favored of the Lord? It is always like that. man foes shall be those of his own household.Do not narrow that down to the limits of a family where one is a Christian and all the rest are not. That is not the point at all. It is his own household, the Christian household. You will meet the antagonism to what has come in from heaven as a heavenly thing; you will meet the antagonism amongst those who are the traditional people of God in this dispensation. That is how it will be. That is going to be the cost of a walk in Life with the Lord and not with man, knowing the Lord for yourself.

It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.

Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. § We suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot has held fast to His steps; I have kept His way and not turned aside.

You shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not … You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.

Ps. 119:71;  Heb. 5:8;  Rom. 8:17,18;  Job 23:10,11;  Deut. 8:2,  Deut. 8:5,6

By strength no man shall prevail.

Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” … Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he slung it … So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone.

No king is saved by the multitude of an army; a mighty man is not delivered by great strength … Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy. § Both riches and honor come from You, and You reign over all. In Your hand is power and might; in Your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.

I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

1 Sam. 2:9;  1 Sam. 17:45;  1 Sam. 17:49,50;  Ps. 33:16;  Ps. 33:18;  1 Chron. 29:12;  2 Cor. 12:9,10

Pioneering

An instrument for honorable uses, consecrated, useful for the Master, and ready for any good service" (2 Tim. 2:21, Wms.).

To be a leader one must be a dependent one, a led one; one who is "looking away (from all that would distract) to Jesus, who is the Leader and the Source of our faith" (Heb. 12:2).

"One of the greatest needs in the Church today is for authoritative, spiritual, and sacrificial leadership. Authoritative, because people love to be led by one who knows where he is going and who inspires their confidence. Spiritual, because a leadership which is carnal and explainable in terms of the natural, be it ever so competent, can result in sterility and spiritual bankruptcy. Sacrificial, because its source is the life of One who gave Himself a sacrifice, and stated that the path of leadership was by the lonely road of sacrificial service." -O.S.

"The standard and measure of spiritual leaders has to be ahead of others, and as human nature generally likes not to be disturbed, but would seek the easy way, the pioneer is often a bit too much for people. His is not the easy way, and because the whole nature of man is either downward or to a quiet and happy snugness, the leader is not always popular. The pioneer is therefore not always appreciated, but often very much otherwise. He is quite contrary to this mediocre gravitation. A part of the price of leadership is loneliness." -T. A-S.

"Paul could say, I am glad to spend and to be spent for your sakes, notwithstanding the more earnestly I love you the less I be loved'; not, I will help you as long as you love me. People hurt you; you are not appreciated? Well, so be it! Spend and be spent the more!"

The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient" (2 Tim. 2:24)

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