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Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven

Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word! Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will!

“I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.”—“I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”—“My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”—“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”—It is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.—“If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”—So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

Matthew 6:10;  Psalm 103:20; 21;  John 6:38;  Psalm 40:8;  Matthew 26:42;  Matthew 7:21; ; Romans 2:13;  John 13:17;  James 4:17;  Romans 12:2

Spiritual Sensitivity

We have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. (2 Corinthians 5:16 NLT)

The first and primary thing is the absolute necessity for knowing one another after the Spirit. he love of Christ constrains us; because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, that they which live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him enceforth know we no man after the flesh./i> That means that as far as we can see, we have not made what we are by nature the final basis of our relationships, of our expectations, of our judgments, of our appraisals, of our valuations. It does not mean that we are oblivious of one another human nature. It does not mean that what we are in the flesh never strikes us; that we are to be totally insensible to the defects of one another nature. No! We shall always be sensitive. It is probably true that the more spiritual we are, the more sensitive we become to what we are by nature and to what others are by nature. Perhaps we shall suffer all the more because of the defects and imperfections, the strengths and the weaknesses of one another naturally.

Men of the world have but a very, very minute degree of the difficulty that Christians have of getting on with one another. They seem to be able to ignore and ride over one another difficult parts and make-up. It seems that Christians are much more alive to that sort of thing than others, and are touched by it more keenly. Of course, we can explain that along two lines. If we become spiritually sensitive the flesh is sensed very much more quickly; what is not spiritual registers itself upon spiritual sensitiveness. There is also the fact that we have an adversary to reckon with who is always seeking to make a lot of the imperfections and brings them up and hits us with them. He is at work in this matter of seeking to upset the relationships of the Lord people. He never tires of that. Not knowing one another after the flesh does not mean that all that realm will cease to exist for us, but it does mean that we shall look beyond that realm and we shall steadily seek grace and the help of the Holy Spirit to cultivate and develop a determination to look through what we are by nature to what there is of the Lord Jesus and of the Holy Spirit in one another, and keep our eyes upon that.

The ear tests words as the palate tastes food.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. § Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. § I speak as to wise men; judge for yourselves what I say. § Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says. § He who is spiritual judges all things. § Take heed what you hear. § I know your works. You have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars. § Test all things; hold fast what is good.

He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.

Job 34:3;  1 John 4:1;  John 7:24;  1 Cor. 10:15;  Col. 3:16;  Rev. 2:29;  1 Cor. 2:15;  Mark 4:24;  Rev. 2:2;  1 Thess. 5:21;  John 10:3,5

The Hand Of Life

That I may know Him. . . being made conformable unto His death" (Phil. 3:10).

The life that emerges from death is administered by a loving, nail-pierced hand.

"As with the seed that is buried once for all, but then disintegrated through a gradual process that sets free the new life, even so does our Father deal with our old nature by delivering it to death with the Lord Jesus once for all, and then bringing about its mortifying in detail through the circumstances of daily life, until the power of the old man has lost its hold on us." -L.T.

"We are going to have to learn death in order to know life. Redemption must be known first, and the ultimate effect will be death to sin, to selfishness; and all this is very trying. One might be tempted to say, All this trial comes upon me because I have not been redeemed. Not so; it is just because you are redeemed. We may seek to avoid the bitter waters of Marah, but our Father will bring us to them. He intends to break down what is of the old man, and then, in His own good time, He will pour in that which sweetens all.

"But because God has brought me to Himself, He is putting His finger on everything that hinders complete dependence upon Him, or my soul's full enjoyment of Himself. So count it not strange, though it be a fiery trial which is to try you; for the Father will have you drink of the very thing (death) that redeemed you." -J.N.D.

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5).

The All-Sufficient God - Character and Attributes of God (21)

A Single Mind