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The Furnace Of Affliction

I have refined you, but not like silver. I have tested you in the furnace of suffering. (Isaiah 48:10 GW)

The furnace of affliction is for those who by faith are inChrist. What happens in the furnace of affliction? What is itthat is dealt with in the fire? Is it you, and is it I, that arerefined in the fire? Are you refined in the fire? Am Irefined in the furnace of affliction? I say, No! emphaticallyNO!! If we say, "Yes!" well, let us look at the furnace ofaffliction, the fire with the metal in the crucible. What are youdoing with that metal? Well, you say, you heat the fire intenselyand all the uncleanness, the corruption, comes to the surface;this is skimmed off, and when that process has been carriedthrough to its end, there is left pure gold! Then if you say thatis you or that is me you will have to abandon your doctrine oftotal depravity, and you will have to come back to the placewhere you say there is good in us, after all! You will have tosay there is good and bad in us, and the furnace of affliction isto get the badness out of us and leave the goodness! Is that truedoctrine? No!

The furnace of affliction is not for the removal ofthe bad out of us so as to leave the good that is in us, andsecure it! Then what is its purpose? Is it to refine Christ inus? We need not discuss that! Christ needs no refining! What isit for? It is to divide between what is us in fallen nature, andwhat is Christ, and to get rid of the one in order to give fullplace to the other! The furnace of affliction is the applicationof the Cross to the getting rid of you and me, in order to leavethe whole place for Christ. It is the measure of Christ that Godis after, not to cut in between the good and bad in us, but tocut in between what is Christ, and what is ourselves. That iswhat the Lord is doing. He is after increasing Christ, and inorder to do that He has to displace self, the old creation. It isall the measure of Christ in this realm. The realm of God is notgoing to be refined self, reformed self, or any kind of patchingup of self. It is going to be none of self,and all of Christ.

Brethren, the time is short.

Man who is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower and fades away; he flees like a shadow and does not continue. § The world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. § As in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive… Death is swallowed up in victory. § For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. § To live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. “For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry.” § The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. § The end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.

1 Cor. 7:29;  Job 14:1,2;  1 John 2:17;  1 Cor. 15:22, 54;  Rom. 14:8;  Phil. 1:21;  Heb. 10:35–37;  Rom. 13:12;  1 Peter 4:7

A new name.

The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. § Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. § Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. § You were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.

Be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints… Now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.

Rev. 2:17;  Acts 11:26;  2 Tim. 2:19;  Gal. 5:24;  1 Cor. 6:20;  Gal. 6:14,15;  Eph. 5:1–3;  Eph. 3:8

The Cross And The Spirit

But God forbid that I should glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal. 6:14). 

The Lord Jesus carried out the work of the Cross as to our eternal position. The Holy Spirit carries out the work of the Cross as to our present condition. "He will take the things that are Mine and will transmit them to you" (John 16:15, Amp.).

"We cannot separate the Cross from the Holy Spirit. We can have no Easter and no Pentecost, until we have first had a Good Friday. Through the Cross alone we are prepared for life in the fulness of God; only he who is crucified with Christ can be a vessel unto honor. Our old man' must be crucified with Christ, and in His resurrection we find the roots of our new life. Whosoever loses his life, shall find it. We must learn the lesson of the Cross, as condemned and rejected ones, who have been crucified with Christ.

"Then the door will be open for a life of power and blessing. All that belongs to death must be turned over to the death of the Cross, even as the body is laid away in the earth, because it belongs to the earth. The Holy Spirit, the Eternal Spirit, is unchangeable. He brought Christ our Head to the Cross, and us His children with Him. For this work in us is twofold. On the one hand, it leads us to death; and on the other hand, to that life which God has placed within us and which leads from glory to glory." -A.M.

"And all of us, with faces uncovered, because we continue to reflect like mirrors the splendor of the Lord, are being transformed into likeness to Him, from one degree of splendor to another, since it comes from the Lord who is the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:18, Wms.).

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