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Boundless Heavenly Resources

Of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. (John 1:16)

It is a grand thing and a source of tremendous strength to come to the same position as that of Christ as Man, where we know that boundless heavenly resources are available. I think we only come there progressively, and not all at once. We only come there by the way of discipline - discipline which takes the form of bringing us to an utter dependence, but which is yet not an emptying and a breaking down as an end in itself, but one which is accompanied by that grace of God - that graciousness of God - which, when we are empty, makes His fullness to abound.

There is a positive as well as a negative side. God is no believer in negatives as being the ultimate goal; but when He breaks and when He empties, He does something on the positive side which ever causes us to marvel, and we have to say every time: "Well, that was the Lord, not ourselves." We come progressively by that way of discipline to know that there are heavenly resources which far outstrip all human possibilities, and these resources are operative. This is what constitutes spirituality - this is what makes a life or service spiritual: it is the drawing upon heavenly resources, living the life as out from heaven. That is spirituality. That constitutes a spiritual life and a spiritual walk. The resources are not drawn from self or from the world; they are all drawn from above. The government is not that here of men or of the world, but that which is from above. Everything is so utterly from above - and so utterly not from man - that the life or work becomes spiritual as a consequence.

Therefore do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” . . . For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger; but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing. § No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in You.

I want you to be without care. § Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. § Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? § Have faith in God.

Matt. 6:31,32;  Ps. 34:9.10;   Ps. 84:11,12;  1 Cor. 7:32;  Phil. 4:6;  Matt. 10:29;  Matt. 10:30,31;  Mark 4:40;  Mark 11:22

He spread a cloud for a covering, and fire to give light in the night.

As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. § There will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain.

The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand… The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore. § The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Ps. 105:39;  Ps. 103:13,14;  Ps. 121:6;  Isa. 4:6;  Ps. 121:5,8;  Ex. 13:21,22;  Heb. 13:8

Old Rejected, New Accepted

You were set free from the tyranny of Sin, and became the bondservants of Righteousness" (Rom. 6:18 Wey.).

The principle underlying resurrection life is, of all things, death. "For since we have become one with Him by sharing in His death, we shall also be one with Him by sharing in His resurrection. Surrender your very selves to God as living men who have risen from the dead" (Rom. 6:5, 13, Wey.). Let the facts of your position overwhelm the feelings of your condition.

"By exercising faith in the Word, apart from any feelings, be planted together with Him in the likeness of His death' (Rom. 6:5). Only by thus standing in your position will you begin to experience the likeness of His resurrection.' Reckon on your life-union with Him. Reject the old life on the basis of your death in Christ on the Cross, and count yourself alive in Him until He makes experiential your resurrection position. Do not forget that you must stand firmly upon the specific truths: dead indeed unto sin - alive unto God in Christ Jesus' (Rom. 6:11).

"The sharing of His life is our blessed experience just in the measure in which we share His death. So many of us are content merely that the Cross should be the power to save us from the penalty of sin, but death was not the end of the manifestation of Christ. It was resurrection, and it is the risen life, shining forth in the believer, that alone can carry out the purpose of God in redemption. The believer, in whose daily attitude the mark of resurrection is seen, becomes what the world is looking for, a convincing witness to the power of the Living Redeemer." -G.W.

"That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection" (Phil. 3:10).

The Law of Love - Growing In Grace (27)

Changing Scenes