◄ ►

The Miracle Of Divine Life

With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. (Matthew 19:26)

There are two ways of viewing the impossible. Everything depends upon where you put the impossibility on the thing or on God. The things which are not possible with men are possible with God (Matt. 19:26). And He answers these impossible things in the normal way for it is the normal way; the abnormal would be by signs and wonders and extraordinary happenings: demonstrations to our senses; but the normal way in the Christian life is the way of the continuous transcendence of His Life over the working of death. That miracle is far more general than we recognize. You have to live your life and do your work in a sphere of spiritual death where everything is against spiritual Life, and there is nothing to support you at all, and yet you go on there in the Lord, and are not swallowed up, engulfed and destroyed by that atmosphere and by those conditions. That is the miracle of Divine Life working silently. Yours, then, is a life as is the life of everyone set in the presence of the great stone of death, spiritual death. We know it, and yet we are preserved alive spiritually and we go on. That is the great miracle. It is the miracle of every day. That is the testimony that God raised Him from the dead....

In the resurrection of the Lord Jesus or let me put it this way in union with the risen Christ our hopes are far greater than all our worldly hopes. We may in His death have to lay our treasure in the dust, we may have to let go much that is very precious to us of hope and expectation and ambition and outlook. Our world may have to be placed with the stones of the brook (Job 22:24). In resurrection union with Christ something more is given back than what we formerly wanted. God is like that. You may say that is language and sounds very beautiful, but is it true? Well, I appeal to those of you who have any spiritual life and history at all. You have doubtless gone through a time of deep and dark trial in which you have had to hand everything over you have come to a crisis where you have had to place on the altar something that was very precious and let it go to the Lord. If the Lord has not given that back to you, have you not come into some spiritual wealth, some spiritual good, something more in a spiritual way that makes you say, 'Well, it was worth it!'? The answer of God through the Cross to all disappointed hopes and expectations is, and in the very nature of God must be, something more than that which was laid in the grave. It is the very principle of Christ risen. He was a far greater Christ in resurrection than He was before if I may put it like that without being misunderstood.

You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God. § You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

You shall be named the priests of the Lord, they shall call you the servants of our God. § Priests of God and of Christ.

Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus. § By Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. § The temple of God is holy, which temple you are.

Ex. 19:6;  Rev. 5:9,10;  1 Peter 2:9;  Isa. 61:6;  Rev. 20:6;  Heb. 3:1;  Heb.13:15;  Eph. 2:10;  1 Cor. 3:17

We made our prayer to our God,and … set a watch against them.

Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. § Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. § [Cast] all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith.

Why do you call Me “Lord, Lord,” and not do the things which I say? § But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Neh. 4:9;  Matt. 26:41;  Col. 4:2;  1 Peter 5:7,9;  Luke 6:46;  James 1:22;  Ex. 14:15;  Phil. 4:6,7

Passive Resistance

There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1).

Until the believer realizes that his life is safely hid with Christ in God, he will never get free from the harassment of the enemy. "When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble?" (Job 34:29).

"If the Lord Jesus is not positively before the soul, it is enough: the enemy's work is done!" -F.W.G.

"There is a world of difference between the nagging, corroding condemnations of the devil, and the clear convictions of the Holy Spirit. The enemy speaks in generalities, seeking to smear us by a vague sense of failure, uncleanness, confusion, heaviness of spirit. The answer to that is there is now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.'

"The Holy Spirit speaks specifically, and His convicting, although rebuking us, is sweet and clean and true and acceptable. He points out some exact and immediate action by which we have temporarily given in to sin. Satan points downward to despair, but the Spirit points upward to cleansing."

"The tempter's suggestions are apt to make one feverish. There is a sure test for ambitious plans. Any trace or taint of fever produced is a pretty sure indication of the enemy's influence. In sharp contrast with this, the Holy Spirit's work always makes us quiet and clear and deliberate. Our Master's touch still has the same power and effect as when He touched the hand of Peter's wife's mother; the fever leaves."

"In nothing terrified by your adversaries" (Phil. 1:28).

The Infinite God - Character and Attributes of God (22)

A Focused Mind