Hungry Heart Daily Devotional Anthology -mjs

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Netchaplain

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6-21. PERSONIFICATION

"God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction" (Genesis 41:52).

To share what we have may minister temporarily to the physical; but to minister to the spiritual in an eternal way we must share what we are, and that calls for growth in the Lord Jesus Christ.

"We can only comfort others with the comfort wherewith we ourselves have been comforted of God. Others can only really be helped by what has been the power of life in the would-be helper.

"Information, by itself, however correct and orthodox, however strongly held in conviction and passed on in passion, will lack an essential and indispensable quality or value for spiritual constitution.

"Hence it has ever been God's way to raise up a vessel, personal or corporate, in which His message has been wrought by fiery ordeal. The messenger must not only have the message in him, but he must be in the message: not only in mind and feeling, but in experience and being." -T. A-S.

"We really can only come into the reality of things by being 'pressed out of measure' (2 Corinthians 1:8). So the Lord has to take much time to make our spiritual history. When at length our eyes are open, we cry, 'O, why did I not see it before!' But everything else had to prove insufficient before we could really be shown, and that takes time."

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time" (1 Peter 5:6).

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Netchaplain

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As believers, we could not be in better hands. Regardless of what occurs or what our old minds may think up, our Father never turns us over to anything but His own training of love-chastening. Nothing ever negative comes from God’s care for us, even when there may be times when something may start as a negative, God works it out as a positive for our good and not a moment of time is wasted.

When we become too self-centered, any negativity from self can be enhanced, even beyond necessity and the carnal imagination can take flight, attempting to discourage but even this, along with whatever transpires is the believer’s life, will be used as an advantage.

For the “household of God”, all is blood-covered, so “casting all your care on Him” (1 Pet 5:7) is the instruction of the day and there is no greater exercise of faith than to realize He already knows everything we will think and do and yet, He wants us to understand and believe “He made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph 1:6). -NC

6-23. LOVE'S LEGACY

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God" (Philippians 4:6).

Ignorance insures insecurity; scriptural knowledge secures strength. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7).

"In mechanics, wobbling is weakness. Power issues from God's restfulness. Are we resting in the Lord? Can we wait patiently for Him to act? Anxiety reduces spiritual energy. Lack of rest of heart is one of the most serious hindrances to Christians.

"Fret of soul when wronged, or fuss over financial or other concerns, is a depletion of power, a dissipation of energy. From the rock basis of rest in Him we can put forth the whole of our energies. Perfect peace is our promised portion."

"Martha gets instruction; we all get that, for our Lord neglects none of us; but she did not get His company; company is what gives rest to the heart."

"Nothing can separate the believer from the love of God, and under no circumstances whatever can he come under the infliction of wrath from God. He may have to correct His saints for their sins, and where there has been no failure He may chasten (child train) them for their profit, that they may become partakers of His holiness; but all this is in love, not in wrath. Every action of God toward His saints is in grace and blessing; it is ever the outcome of His love."

"And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:7).

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6-24. GRATUITOUS GRACE

"Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law but under grace" (Romans 6:14).

Grace forsaken is freedom forfeited.

"In considering the whole testimony of the Bible, it is almost as important for the believer who would do the will of God to recognize that which does not concern him as it is for him to recognize that which does concern him.

"It is obvious that, apart from the knowledge of dispensational truth, the believer will not be intelligently adjusted to the present purpose and will of God in the world. Such knowledge alone will save him from assuming the hopeless legality of the dispensation that is past or from undertaking the impossible world transforming program belonging to the dispensation which is to come." -W.S.C.

"The Law of Moses is interrelated and wholly dependent on the sacrifices and ritual provided for Israel in the land. The laws of the kingdom (Sermon on the Mount) are only related to the future kingdom conditions which shall be in the earth under the power and presence of the King when Satan is bound, creation delivered, and all shall know the Lord from the least unto the greatest.

"All harmony of truth is shattered when there is the slightest commingling of the principles of law and grace. Grace alone now reigns through Christ to the glory of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."

"By the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me" (1 Corinthians 15:10).

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6-25. PLUS, OR MINUS?

"For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love" (Galatians 5:6).

Grace + Law = Death. Grace - Law = Life!

"Covenant theology, which has molded the major theological conceptions for many generations, recognizes no distinctions as to ages, therefore can allow for no distinctions between law and grace. This dominating attitude of Covenantism must account for the utter neglect of life truth (growth) in all their works of theology.

"No more representative theological dictum from the Covenant viewpoint has been formed than the Westminster Confession of Faith, which valuable and important document recognizes life truth only to the point of imposing the Ten Commandments on Christians as their sole obligation, and in spite of the teachings of the New Testament which asserts that the Law was never given to Gentile or Christian."-L.S.C.

"While freeing believers from the bondage of Rome, the Protestant Reformation brought them back, in large measure, under the bondage of Sinai. The Reformation took away one set of bindings, but bound the believers with another--and this has atrophied the spiritual life of multitudes." -D.G.B.

"Not a single cluster of living fruit ever was, or ever will be, culled from the tree of legality. Law can only produce 'dead works,' from which we need to have conscience purged just as much as from 'wicked works.'" -C.H.M.

"Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty with which Christ hath made us free" (Galatians 5:1 ).

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6-26. EDIFYING EQUILIBRIUM

"That ye may be blameless and harmless, children of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world" (Philippians 2:15).

There should be neither undergrowth, nor overgrowth, but balanced growth. Spiritual equilibrium alone will bring forth much fruit both in us and in others.

"A popular notion that the first obligation of the Church is to spread the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth is false. The first obligation is to be spiritually worthy to spread it. . . to spread an effete (worn out) and degenerate brand of Christianity to pagan lands is not to fulfill the Great Commission."

"We were created for more than our own spiritual development; reproduction, not mere development, is the goal to mature being--reproduction in other lives. There is a tendency in some characters, running parallel to the high cultivation that spends its whole energy on the production of bloom at the expense of seed.

"The flowers that are bent on perfecting themselves, by becoming double, end in barrenness, and a like barrenness comes to the soul whose interests are all concentrated upon its own spiritual well-being, heedless of the needs around. The true, ideal flower, is the one that uses its gifts as means to an end; the brightness and sweetness are not for its own glory; they are but to attract the bees and butterflies that will fertilize and make it fruitful." -L.T.

"Holding forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain" (Philippians 2:16).

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6-27. TRUTH, OR CONSEQUENCES

"I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you" (1 John 2:14).

Experience may ratify, or it may repudiate, truth. The Word alone, to faith, is truth unalterable.

"If I allow the thought that what I am toward God will in some way or other affect what God is toward me, I shall be filled with the spectre of bondage. But when I see that what God is toward me is altogether the outcome of what He is, and that He is this though knowing perfectly what I am, it puts my heart in the right direction for liberty." -C.A.C.

"God speaks to us according to His estimate of our standing, our position: it may not be our heart's experience. There is a distinctness between the operation of the Spirit of God in bringing me unto the Lord Jesus, bearing witness to me of God's love, and of the efficacy of what Christ has done--and His operation in my soul to produce the image of His Son.

"That which is the subject of experience is what is produced in my soul, whereas that which gives me peace is His testimony to the work and life of Christ. A Christian who doubts the Father's love to him, and who looks for peace to that which passes in his own heart, is doubting God's truth. The Word is the revelation God has given of Himself; it displays the love of God toward us, and what is in His heart. I can trust the declaration of what is in God's heart, and not what I think of myself." -J.N.D.

"If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine" (1 Timothy 4:6).

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6-29. APPLICABLE APPLICATION

"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort" (2 Corinthians 1:3).

We have all cringed at the sad spectacle of the "nouveau riche." And yet many of us as believers present the same failure--flaunting and mishandling our spiritual riches in Christ Jesus.

"The Lord deals with us in order that we might be able to minister in an apt way. His stewards are to be men of understanding, who can touch the various needs, who can reach the heart, so that the Lord's children are saying: That just fits me! That touches my case! That person must know! That one must have been through it! Yes, the Lord knows, and He would take you and me through experiences such as will make us sharers in a living way--and that is what He is doing." -T. A-S.

"It is a new day to your soul when you realize that Christ is the Source of everything, and that it is from Himself you must draw, and not from ministry about Him. Many can explain Scripture and even apply it, who are not under the effect of it themselves. They have not come from Him, and are not themselves imbued with that which they are trying to convey.

"There is much wise counsel and good teaching which is not applicable to the moment and to the need. It does not effect what is the Lord's desire as the end of the ministry, which is to lead the soul to Himself, because it is not spoken in communion with Himself. You must first get to where He is, and then you are brought into harmony with the scene where He is."

"Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them who are in any trouble, by the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted of God" (2 Corinthians 1:4).

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6-30. NO CROSS, NO CHRIST!

"Whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:27).

One hears much today about "body life," with its emphasis upon New Testament gathering, rather than Christ-centered growth. The Body is meant to manifest the Head, and that necessitates spiritual members.

"Where there is no Cross there is no life, and no ministry of life. The object of suffering is that there may be a full and abundant ministry. . . . We are not to invite trouble, nor by austerity to ill-treat our bodies. The Holy Spirit Himself takes responsibility for our experience, leading us in paths where we encounter, in body, heart, or spirit, that measure of 'the dying of Jesus' that will mean enrichment of our ministry."

"There are many today who seem to think that it is all or largely a matter of the order, technique, and form, and if we are to return to the 'New Testament' form or order of churches all would be well. The fact is that, while certain things characterize the N.T. churches, the Word does not give us a complete pattern according to which churches are to be formed!

"There is no blueprint for churches in the N.T., and to try to form such churches is only to create another system which may be as legal, sectarian and dead as others. Churches, like the Church, are organisms which spring out of life, which life itself springs out of the Cross of Christ wrought into the very being of believers. Unless believers are crucified people, there can be no true exp<b></b>ressi&#111;n of the Church." -T. A-S.

"God forbid that I should glory, except in the Cross" (Galatians 6:14).

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6-31. MANUALLY CONTROLLED

"Having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them" (Colossians 2:15).

"For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Corinthians 4:15-17). Amen!

"The sovereignty of God is what alone gives rest to the Christian heart in view of a world full of evil, which is gone astray from Him. To know that after all, in spite of the rebellion of the creature, things are as absolutely in His hand as ever they were--this brings, and alone brings, full relief. Still He rules over all, and where evil cannot be turned to good, limits and forbids it: He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath (what would go beyond this) He restrains (Psalm 76:10)." -F.W.G.

"People may quarrel with the sovereignty of God, but I love it, because I know enough about my natural bent and will to be sure that if left to myself I should have gone straight to perdition. Some believers talk about man's free will when they are on their feet, but all are firm believers in God's sovereignty when they get on their knees." -C.A.C.

"Human history is not in the grip of fate, but in the hands of Him Who was pierced for us on Calvary." -W.G.S.

"Now thanks be unto God, who always causeth us to triumph in Christ" (2 Corinthians 2:14).

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7-2. PERSONAL APPRECIATION

"As ye have, therefore, received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him " (Colossians 2 7).

We appreciate His benefits toward us, but are we appreciative do we express to Him our appreciation? "Let us be very watchful that the inner life, communion with the Lord Jesus, be the true source of our activities. "

The Lord Jesus longs for fellowship with us. He does not want patronage. It does not meet the desire of His heart to be followed, or admired, or gazed at, because of what He can do or give. He delights in a heart taught of the Spirit to appreciate His Person, for this glorifies and gratifies the Father. He retires from the gaze of an excited and tumultuous throng who would fain make Him a king, because they had eaten of the loaves and were filled; but He could turn with touching earnestness to the little band of disciples who still remained, and challenge their hearts with the question, 'Will ye also go away?'

"Love could never be too near to its object. Nearness to the Lord Jesus is the instinct of divine life, as we see in the first question of the two disciples who followed Him, 'Where dwellest Thou?' Why is not this the first question now? Because there is not simple devotedness of heart to the Lord Jesus Christ."
There is nothing in all the world so precious to the Father as a heart that, in any measure, appreciates His Son. "

"Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and l will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).

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At the next coming of Christ it will be our condition, not our position, which will change because our present position of acceptance with the Father could not be efficacious than it is now; for “He hath made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph 1:6).

Presently, the believer is guiltless before the Father, but conditionally, not sinless. This will not be until “the redemption of our body” (Rom 8:23), when it will be “the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body” (Phil 3:20, 21) and only then will it be “That He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Eph 5:27).

Positionally, all believers are equal but conditionally, they vary. A believer’s manner of living is determined by the response acted upon concerning the Word of God, because it is the Word through which the Holy Spirit applies the life of Christ to change us “into the same image” (2 Cor 3:18).

What are the “spot, or wrinkle” and “blemish” that we will be lacking when “we shall be changed” (1 Cor 15:51, 52) to “meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess 4:17)? The corruptible body and the Adamic nature! -NC

7-3. NOW AND FOREVER FREE!

"Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:7,8).

We can trust Him for our matriculation here, and we can trust Him for our examination and graduation in Glory!

That word, 'blameless,' may be translated 'unimpeachable' or unaccusable.' In other words, when we stand at last at the judgment seat of Christ, God Himself is going to see to it that no charge can stand against any believer, because the Lord Jesus Christ has atoned for all our sins with His own precious Blood. Every failure in life will be dealt with there, and all the wood, hay, and stubble will be burned in the fire of that day and we shall stand before our Lord unimpeachable, unaccusable." -H.A.I.

"Instead of my sins being between myself and Him, as before, it is Himself who is now between me and my sins; and the One who has thus interposed has given me to know that in the doing it He has brought me to Himself, and tuned my heart to His own praise.
He has borne the judgment due to my sins, and condemned sin in the flesh; in the Person of my Substitute I am clear from, and carried beyond, the judgment forever, the power of death is annulled, that of Satan finally broken."

"Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? Shall God that justifieth? Who is he that condemneth? Shall Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is ever' at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us?" (Romans 8:33,34).

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There’s nothing more needless and unnecessary for the believer than to contend with the “old man”. Are we settled with the idea to continually turn everything over to over to the Lord? We can “wrestle” (Eph 6:12) without contending, for we are admonished, nay, commanded in “Casting all your care upon Him; for He cares for you” (1 Pet 5:7). Failure in this is to incur a hindrance, “for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage” (2 Pet 2:19).

To attempt to battle and overcome sin itself is to unknowingly misunderstand that it has been dealt with: “I am He who lives and was dead and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death” (Rev 1:18). We “overcome evil” when attempted against us, by doing “good” (Rom 12:21); that is, overcome the evil man and the evil he has done you by doing good to him, as presented in the four preceding verses 17-20.

The believer is not to “give place to the devil” (Eph4:27) but rather, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (Jam 4:7). This accomplishment involves “That ye put off . . . the old man” that we may “put on the new man” (Eph 4:22, 24).

“The putting off of the old man is not a removing him from the saints, nor a destroying him in them, nor a changing his nature; for he remains, and remains alive, and is the same old man he ever was, in regenerate persons; but it is a putting him off from his seat, and a putting him down from his government; a showing no regard to his rule and dominion, to his laws and lusts, making no provision for his support.” -JG

We can “enter into His rest” (Heb 4:10) by realizing and remembering that Christ has already, for the believer, triumphed over all evil; whether it be evil from our fellow man, our “old man” or “spiritual wickedness in high places”, we should identify and acknowledge the evil and cast our concerns of it on the Lord. -NC

7-4. REST AND REJOICE!

"Rejoice in the Lord always!" (Philippians 4:4).

Exhaustive effort brings home the necessity of strengthening rest. The believer will not be ready to enter into his spiritual rest until he is utterly worn out by his unsuccessful efforts to conquer sin and the old man. There is no rest for the "wretched man" of Romans 7-that struggle must lead to the rest of Romans 8.

"Grace is sufficient for favorable circumstances, but they are by far the most trying (spiritually) to the believer. There is an easy way of going on in worldliness, and there is nothing more sad than the quiet comfortable Christian going on day by day, apart from dependence upon the Lord.

"It must be as with Israel and the manna; there must be the daily gathering and daily dependence upon God. If circumstances come between our hearts and God, we are powerless. If the Lord Jesus is nearer, circumstances will not hinder our joy in God ."

"The heart of man naturally seeks rest, and seeks it here. Now, there is no rest to be found here for the believer; but it is written, 'There remaineth, therefore, a rest to the people of God' (Hebrews 4:9).

"To know this is both full of blessing and full of sorrow: sorrow to the flesh; because it is always seeking its rest here, it has always to be disappointed; blessing to the spirit, because the spirit, being born of God, can only rest in God's rest, as it is said, 'If they shall enter into My rest' (Hebrews 4:5). What God desires for us is to bring us into the enjoyment of all that which He Himself enjoys." -J.N.D.

"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently' for Him" (Psalm 37: 7).

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7-5. HIS CROSS -- OUR CROSS

"He said to them all, If any man will come after Me, let him. . . take up his Cross daily " (Luke 9. 23).

We go all the way to Calvary in faith and there find ourselves identified with the Lord Jesus in His death and resurrection. And Calvary comes all the way to us in experience as the Holy Spirit applies that finished work to our lives.

"In the Reformation there was, through grace, a great deliverance. The groundwork of Christianity was recovered; namely, justification by faith. But though this was recovered, it was not maintained that the old man was crucified on the Cross, and hence they only refused the exactions of popery, but recognized the flesh as still before God. Refusing the exaction was right; but the retention of that in which the exaction could be made, the old man, was the weakness of the Reformation. "

"I do not see the Cross truly if I only see it as opening a way of escape for me, and yet allowing that in me to escape which has incurred the judgment of the Cross. "

"In the present day (1867) the truth is lowered to the measure of man's need; hence if the need is met, which grace does, the convert makes little or no advance; he rests in the satisfaction of his need, instead of being directed to the scope of God's thought, which only begins with his need. "Where would souls be put if they were simply and definitely instructed in Christ Jesus and Him crucified and risen; connected by faith with the living One, who was crucified, and whose death terminated man in the flesh?" -J.B.S.

"Whosoever doth not, bear his Cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple'' (Luke 14:27).

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7-6. AFFLICTION'S EFFECT

"But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ " (Philippians 3:7).

Our Father has many reasons for administering trial— all good. Trial teaches us the futility of the old life, and the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus-our new life.

"The Christian suffers the same calamities as others, perhaps even worse; he faces difficulties and losses in the things of this life; he has to be prepared to meet death itself. In all these circumstances he is calm and trustful; he is not only sure of ultimately going to heaven, but already abides there and enjoys something of it in his own heart.

"God is real to him and ever near. He knows a peace which passes all understanding, and he experiences a joy which no man can take from him. This, surely, should be our testimony in the world, but it can only be as the Lord Jesus Himself lives out this life in us." -H.F.

"The world is divided into two things-pleasures and afflictions; I am more afraid of the pleasures than the afflictions. In afflictions you turn to the Lord. The danger is of being carried away by the very favors God has given to man. "

"Those who suffer from chastening ought to be before the Father, owning His hand; and He who has wounded will heal. The Lord Jesus did not take the cup which He had to drink from us, from man, nor from Satan; but from His Father's hand."

"Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord" (Philippians 3:8).

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7-7. "PEACE ON EARTH"

"Let the peace of God rule in your hearts " (Colossians 3:15).
Peace does not, and cannot, exist in the fallen Adam life; and as long as the old man reigns within, there is going to be turmoil both within and without. The path of the Cross is alone the path of peace.

"The moment came when the Lord Jesus could say, 'Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you' (John 14:27). This could only be on the ground of His death, for the man in Adam could never give up his will: to do so would be to give up his very existence. But the death of the Lord Jesus is-judicially, and for faith-the end of that man, and the Christian walking in the Spirit owns him no more.

"The believer can thus, and only thus, have freedom from the tyranny of sin as he reckons himself to have died unto sin, and to be alive unto God as one 'alive from the dead.' He presents his body a living sacrifice unto God, and proves what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Thus walking, the peace of the Lord Jesus becomes an experiential reality in the heart of the believer. Thank God! we are no longer linked with the fallen Adam, and the Holy Spirit has placed us in union with Christ risen and glorified." -C.A.C.

"The more clearly we enter, by faith, into objective truth, or what is true of us in the Lord Jesus, the deeper, more experiential and practical will be the Spirit's subjective work in us, and the more complete will be the manifestation of the moral effect in our life and character. " -C.H.M.

"Both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one" (Hebrews 2:11).

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How often have we forgotten when enduring a hardness, that the Lord is not only with us in it but knew it was inevitable and that even if we think we may not have not properly responded to it, He always works it “together for good” to our advantage? If we think it’s the result of something in which we've made a wrong decision, He still works accordingly.

He knows we never want to ultimately decide on anything that would displease Him, so we need not to ever allow the Enemy, our old self or anyone to use anything to make us feel guilty, concerning anything (this doesn’t include non-repented wrongs); remorseful for wrongs but not guilt. It's not as though we are on probation, because all forgiveness has been settled for us and everything is now part of Him teaching us.

7-9. PATH PROXIMITY

"God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency, may abound to every good work " (2 Corinthians 9:8).
Suffering takes us in condition where truth has us in position.

"We will never learn any truth in experience excepting in the deepening knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the lack of this which is the cause of weakness among believers; bare doctrine is not personal fellowship with Him. We have that which is lovely and full of blessing in Him; but if we are to know it as such; to prove its truth, to enjoy it always, it must be in taking these things as connected with Him." -J.N.D.

"The passive power of faith needs for its sustenance closer communion with the Father than its active energy. Action, as it were, nerves us to the conflict; but quiet endurance of wrong, or suffering of any kind, which neither friend nor foe sees, but only God, this indeed needs divine power, and without God's support none would bear the strain. Many a saint has shown the courage of faith before his enemies, as Elijah when he faced Ahab, but who, like him, quails and flees, where there is nothing to do, but quietly trust in God."

"There is but one thought with our Father in disciplining us, namely, to make our trials an opportunity for our heart to learn and discover more of His love, and the resources which are in Him as He has revealed them to us in His Son." -J.B.S.

"There is no way of learning faith except by trial. It is God's school of faith, and it is far better for us to learn to trust our Father than to enjoy life."

"As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things " (2 Corinthians 6:10).

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7-10. BEHOLD, THE MAN!

"[God] hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus " (Ephesians 2:6).

There aren't many truly happy Christians simply because there aren't many who really abide in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our risen Lord is the source of our happiness as we rest in Him-triumphant over circumstances; not hopelessly underneath them. Happy is the abiding believer, "hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3).

"I must not only see my position in the Lord Jesus, but I must come near to the One who set me there. Many are
disappointed that after hearing with delight and receiving the truth of their position they are not more affected by it.

"The reason is that they rest too much in the position and have not occupied themselves increasingly with their risen Lord; have not drawn nearer to Him, and recognized Him as the only One who can make it all experiential in them." -J.B.S.

"Is the living Person now in heavenly glory really the Object of our hearts? For some time after I knew the Savior I used to think of Him as One who had lived and died on earth long years ago, and I well remember the day when I knelt down with a dear brother who prayed that we might know the Lord Jesus as a living Person in heavenly glory, and it dawned upon me that there was a present Object for my heart in heaven. Our hearts will never be satisfied until that glorified Lord Jesus becomes our Object bright and fair. "

"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth" (Colossians 3:2).

WithChrist.org

7-11. GRACE AND MERCY

"But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).
If and when the trial comes, you will find Him waiting there.

"We should always be prepared for circumstances that will arise, and for blessings that are to come, without foreseeing what these circumstances and blessings will be. This preparation consists in attention to present responsibility, and acceptance of present discipline.

"If day by day we first seek divine direction, and then follow it, we shall be ready, when new circumstances arise, for the new blessings which will be offered. Today should be preparation for tomorrow. The only proof that we shall be equal to tomorrow's test is that we are meeting today's test believingly and courageously. The only evidence that we shall be willing for God's will tomorrow is that we are subject to His will today. " -W.G. S.

"Our Lord has special reserves of grace for special needs. If ever you feel that you could not go through a certain trial, that if you had to face that, you just could not go through with it, you are taking on something that you have no right to take on.
"If the Lord calls you to go through fire or water, He has a special reserve of grace for you in that. And that grace will be from the throne of grace. It is the throne above, mediating grace for need and suffering as it is required." -T. A-S.

"Let us. . . come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need " (Hebrews 4:16).

WithChrist.org
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It is not that Christ’s walk is substituted for ours, or His holiness which is imputed to us, or anything of the kind. It is not yet the question of how to walk, but of what I am; but a question which, when settled in God’s way, stops necessarily the effort to be what no effort of mine can make me, and what, thank God, His infinite grace has already made me: “complete in Him.” “As Christ is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).

Could effort of ours make us “as Christ is’? It would be clearly impossible; and yet nothing but this would reach up to the standard God has given us. Nothing short of this would be perfection, and nothing short of perfection could we rightly rest in. If imperfection God cannot accept, and perfection I cannot bring Him, what then? Then I must accept of my Father’s providing, and find in the Lord Jesus a new self that needs no mending and cannot be improved, where no body of death disturbs or oppresses, and occupation with which is not legalism, nor Pharisaism.

I am privileged to turn away from what I find in myself as a man down here, then, because in the death of the Cross, the death wherein I died with Him, “sin in the flesh” has been fully dealt with. The condemnation of it by God has already found its full expression on the Cross. For faith, not for experience, I too have died and that “to sin”, because “He died unto sin once.” I reckon myself (not feel or find myself) to be dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus Rom 6:11). -- F.W. Grant

7-12. POSITIONAL CONDUCT

"They who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1 7).

"Law and grace are separated by the infinite chasm of the Cross. Law required right conduct first, with earthly position to be earned thereby. Grace gives heavenly position immediately, which ultimately produces right conduct. "Ye are not under the law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14).

"The believer does not walk in order to reach the throne. On the contrary. His walk is determined by the fact that he has been placed with the Lord Jesus in a position of immeasurable ascendancy. He has been made to sit together with Christ in heavenly places in order that, having received an abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, he might reign in life by one, even the Lord Jesus.

"He walks like a king because he is a king (Revelation 1:6). He is not called upon to walk in kingly fashion in order that he may reach the throne. God's order is different. The Christian begins at the throne and his kingly manner is only the inevitable outcome of his exalted position.

"Our frustrations and agonies in an effort to attain the unattainable, our shame and our defeats such as we find in Paul's own experience tabulated so faithfully in Romans 7, come about naturally and inevitably when, failing to grasp all this, we put the emphasis on our conduct rather than our position, which must come first." -F.J.H.

"Unto Him that loveth us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us a kingdom of priests unto God and His Father, to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever " (Revelation 1 :5, 6).

WithChrist.org
 

THE Gypsy

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"Ignorance insures insecurity; scriptural knowledge secures strength"


That's a pretty tasty morsel.
smilie_girl_352.gif
 

Netchaplain

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"Ignorance insures insecurity; scriptural knowledge secures strength"

Hi Gypsy and God's blessings to your Family! I agree with your reply, esp. if Scriptural knowledge is coupled with the wisdom "which the Holy Spirit teaches" (2 Cor 2:13).
 

Axehead

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"Ignorance insures insecurity; scriptural knowledge secures strength"
That's a pretty tasty morsel.
smilie_girl_352.gif



Strength can only be secured in the person of Jesus Christ.

Consider the following verses and see how they speak to you.

Joh_5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
Joh_5:40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.


Jer_9:23 Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich manglory in his riches:
Jer_9:24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.


John_17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

1Jn 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
1Jn 5:21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

Axehead
 

THE Gypsy

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Hi Gypsy and God's blessings to your Family! I agree with your reply, esp. if Scriptural knowledge is coupled with the wisdom "which the Holy Spirit teaches" (2 Cor 2:13).


Indeed.

I was having a conversation with a friend last week and this was one of the main points I was trying to get across...though I was not quite as articulate as the phrase in your post. There is a healthy reason why we are instructed to "renew the mind" and to be very careful of what we put into it. These days too many are caught up in the "love factor" and forget (or never knew) there are many other instructions as well...one does not negate the other. And "the wisdom "which the Holy Spirit teaches" is the only one that counts! Hallelujah!

God bless your ministry.
 

Axehead

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Indeed.

I was having a conversation with a friend last week and this was one of the main points I was trying to get across...though I was not quite as articulate as the phrase in your post. There is a healthy reason why we are instructed to "renew the mind" and to be very careful of what we put into it. These days too many are caught up in the "love factor" and forget (or never knew) there are many other instructions as well...one does not negate the other. And "the wisdom "which the Holy Spirit teaches" is the only one that counts! Hallelujah!

God bless your ministry.
Hi Gypsy and God's blessings to your Family! I agree with your reply, esp. if Scriptural knowledge is coupled with the wisdom "which the Holy Spirit teaches" (2 Cor 2:13).

Hi NetChaplain,

I overlooked your statement, so wanted to say I fully agree with it. The wisdom that the Holy Spirit teaches is indeed the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Eph_1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

Php_3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord:

2Pe_1:8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2Pe_3:18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

Blessings to you and Gypsy

Axehead
 

Netchaplain

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What does “casting all your care upon Him” involve (1 Pet 5:7)? It involves an ongoing dependence on the Father at all times for all things, “for He cares for you”. Any action other than this is an expectation of provision from self and disappointment is sure to follow; for not only is this a failure to realize that God wants to provide for “all your care”, there is also the idea that there must something that falls to us out of responsibility of doing our part. Though there may appear to be a seemingly necessity to “help yourself”, self-help is infinitely inferior to God’s desire for us.

There are certain expectations of us from God but they are always within the framework of depending on Him to cause whatever occurs in our life (even bad decisions) to “work together for good” (Rom 8:28). The saying, “it’s all good” has been popularized but this truism is only for the believer; to and from the unbeliever is nothing truly good, for only “He who does good is of God” (3 John 1:11). “To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled.” (Titus 1:15).

Identifying the vulnerability of self, which will repetitiously occur - esp. during times of excessive self-concern, is the evidence of learning to understand that “the old man” is ever present, which through the Spirit’s work is kept dormant: “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish” (Gal 5:17). -NC

7-13. LOOK AND LIVE!

"But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord " (2 Corinthians 3:18).

As the plant to the sun, we look to the Son for growth!

"What is the good of a man being ennobled, made a prince of, if he feels he has gained no more or sensible acquisition by it? This is the disappointment which souls feel without being able to account for it; and they are subject to nights of wrestling, because they have rested in their grand title, instead of in the means of supporting their titles, which is dependence on, and ever deepening acquaintance with, the One who has conferred them. -J.B.S.

"I cannot conceive anything more satisfying or cheering to the heart than the consciousness that I may not only draw near, but that I draw near in answer to the thought and interest that the Lord Jesus has about me, and that I draw nigh to enjoy myself in His presence where there is so much thought and interest about me. It is there my heart goes out in acknowledgment of Him in answer to His deep, gracious, and everlasting love. "

"By means of the Word, look to the Lord Jesus in faith. Exercise the blessed trust that He is yours, and that He has given Himself to you, and that you have a claim to all that is in Him. It is His purpose to work out His image in you. Behold Him with the joyful and certain expectation: the glory that I behold in Him is destined for me!" -A.M.

"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the fare of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6).

WithChrist.org

7-14. THE MARCH OF TIME

"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him " (Psalm 37 7).

The difference between knowing the Lord Jesus as Savior and knowing Him as Life, is the better part of a lifetime; even for the hungriest of hearts. "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:14).
"In receiving the Word of God by faith, there is first, light; then exercise of conscience; third, prayer-you are cast on God; fourth, the work of the Spirit to lead you into it.

"Not one of us is beyond the work of the Spirit in us. Many think, because they have the light of a truth that they are in the power and reality of it. No! you may have all the Bible, have much light, but there is no growth beyond the measure of the Spirit's work in us.

"Conception of a truth is one thing, and execution is quite another. Grace may have been furnished you with a true conception, but you must wait on the Lord to carry it out by His Spirit. The working out of a true conception is the real discipline."

"Do not be discouraged because you may not carry out your purpose at once; God will carry it out, but you must keep in the place where you will be preserved, in the circle of His interests.
"Moses had to wait forty years to carry out his purpose, which was a right one, though in the first flush the flesh sought to carry it out; but in the Lord's time, how fully every purpose of his heart was met–all the way to the Mount of Transfiguration!"

"Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord. (Hosea 6:3).

WithChrist.org

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Are you “enduring hardness” (2 Tim 2:3) or going through a “fiery trial” (1 Pet 4:12)? Usually it’s not related to anything we have have done but is the orchestrated hand of the Father in His conforming us “to the image of His Son” (Rom 8:29). What we do is determined by where we are in God’s conformation process and so we are always met with proportionate situations just for this purpose. When the trial is related to something we have incurred, He applies His chastising-love for the same reason and remember, He always knows when this is to happen.

Out of the self-centeredness of the “old man” we at times attribute occurrences, good and bad, to ourselves when in actuality it’s the result of God’s direction. There’s nothing we can think or do that He doesn’t already know about beforehand and remembering He uses it all for our “conforming” encourages us to know the complete control He continually has over our lives. “The steps of a [good] man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way (Psa 37:23). -NC

7-15. THE HAND OF LIFE

"That I may know Him . . being made conformable unto His death " (Philippians 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."

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

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epostle1

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From post #1, quote:

"Afflictions are in the hands of the Holy Spirit to effect the softening of the heart in order to receive heavenly impression. Job said, 'God maketh my heart soft' (Job 23:16). As the wax in its natural hard state cannot take the impress of the signet, and needs to be melted to render it susceptible, so the believer is by trials prepared to receive, and made to bear, the divine likeness."

I've endured mental illness (bipoar disorder), lower lumbar scoliosis, degenerative disk disease, attention deficit disorder, and a quadruple bipass. To top things off, I was in a car accident and broke 4 upper ribs. I did a lot of complaining over the years. I'm older now and my prayer life includes sitting still and just listening. I am just beginning to understand what Jesus meant when He said, "pick up your cross, and follow Me." It means that God is in the midst of our suffering. It means that those who miss the good fortune of a miraculous healing have a different calling. It's to unite our everyday trials that befall us with the Suffering Christ, "...so the believer is by trials prepared to receive, and made to bear, the divine likeness."

I would take it a step further. By accepting the trials that come our way, not only do we "receive and made to bear the divine likeness" but divine likeness penetrates us; we become transformed on the inside. There is no resurrection without the crucifixion. Accepting our daily cross means becoming more like Jesus. It's a process and there are different degrees of it. God can be found in our fiery furnace of affliction. It's not just an intellectual exercise, but by the grace of God, a change in attitude.

Col. 1:24 - Paul rejoices in his sufferings and completes what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of His body. Is there something lacking in Christ's sufferings? Of course not. But because Jesus loves us so much, He allows us to participate in His redemptive suffering by leaving room in His mystical body for our own suffering. Our suffering, united with our Lord's suffering, furthers the work of His redemption.

1 Peter 2:19-21 - Peter instructs that we have been called to endure pain while suffering for Christ, our example. God actually calls us to suffer as His Son did, and this is not to diminish us, but to glorify us, because it is by our suffering that we truly share in the eternal priesthood of Jesus Christ.
(source)

With prayer and acceptance of our cross, we grow in holiness. Those who do not get their miraculous healing are not second class Christians. Far from it.
 

Rex

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What a pleasure to read kepha
God bless


With prayer and acceptance of our cross, we grow in holiness. Those who do not get their miraculous healing are not second class Christians. Far from it.

nether are those that receive salvation.
 

Netchaplain

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7-16. PASSIVE RESISTANCE

"There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus " (Romans 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 cleansings."

"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" (Philippians 1:28).

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THE Gypsy

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7-16. PASSIVE RESISTANCE

"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 cleansings."

"sweet and clean and true and acceptable"

What wonderful insight to focus on, today!
 

Netchaplain

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Hi Kepha - God's blessings to your Family! It encourages me to learn of others whom the Lord uses to glorify Himself in their illness-afflictions because I also am doing the same in mine. I had a five-way bi-pass in 98 and had to redo two of them two years latter. I've also had lumbar problems for many years but Chiropractic treatments have been the most helpful.

I'm now on my thirteenth year since the surgeries, which means I have about three to seven years remaining because they say, and as you may know, the transplanted veins only last fifteen to twenty years before they deteriorate. You can onlu use yours, of which there are only a very limited amount and presently there has been no real developments in the medical field that will address this problem.

I'm more encouraged all the time as the Lord continues to increase my understanding of His Word because it's where I get the majority of encouragement for the last thirty five years and I've learned the more involved our "cross" of affliction becomes, the more His grace overcomes.

Our "cross" make us "partakers of Christ's sufferings" (1 Pet 4:13; 2 Cor 1:7)in the physical realm but His Cross makes us "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet 1:4) in the spiritual realm, because this was where the Father "condemned sin" (Rom 8:3)and because of this He has (positionally) "raised [us] up together, and made [us] sit together in the heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus" (Eph 2:6).

All who are Christ's endure the cross of affliction, physical and mental, in varying degrees; which God uses in His "conforming" us to His Son's human life (Rom 8:29) and I like to see it that Christ on the Cross procures salvation in this life, but His absence from it procures eternal presence with Hin in the next.

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Why must the subject of the “old man” so often arise? It slumbers not and ever flies its colors and therefore, we are to “see then that you walk circumspectly” (Eph 5:15) of its vices (Co 3:5-9); for it must be through these that the Enemy vies for position, which can interrupt but not inhibit our progress in Christ (Eph 4:27).

Being prepared to identify the works of our old nature does not involve an unceasing watch, as though it could affect our standing in Christ if missed, but is an urgency to keep it in check as the Spirit often reveals it to us in what we do; He identifies it to us then causes us to allow Him to deal with us in it (Gal 5:17). The works of the old nature are active in varying degrees, depending upon maturity (Eph 5:11-14), and are never completely avoided in our doings (1 John 1:8).

The primary understanding in it all is to realize that it is our ways which indicates our maturity in Christ and this determines the level of our fellowship, in this life, with the Father, but the condition of our fellowship with Him does not affect our acceptance with Him; for our acceptance is determined only by being “accepted in the Beloved” (Eph 1:6). -NC

7-17. ZEAL'S PRECOCITY

"For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge" (Romans 10:2).

It takes more to break inertia than to ease momentum. Misdirected zeal is more easily corrected than inert sloth.

"It is possible, and very humiliating, to be awakened to the fact, though we have had a measure of zeal for the Lord, that we have barely known the things we should have known, nor the behavior that is becoming to us in this marvelous day of grace.

"But it is the love of the Lord Jesus that would lead us on, through the judgment of ourselves and ways, into deeper communion with Himself to be better representatives of Him here in whose likeness we shall soon appear. "

"The snare with zealous, but unprepared and unbroken hearts, is to do the right thing in the wrong way. It is not enough to know the right thing, but I must know the right way of doing it. The latter is not easily learned; the former is the fruit of light; the latter is never acquired but as there is practical grace and love-the activity of the Lord Jesus' nature in me by the Spirit." -J.B.S.

"Denial of the old man is where he is most felt, not where he is least felt; and all the light of Scripture cannot promote growth without self-denial. Here is where most fail, and in this day there is a great deal more zeal to acquire knowledge and intelligence in the wonders of revelation, than to deny the man that has no sympathy with it, nor part in it, but condemnation. "

"Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil " (1 Timothy 3:6).

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Netchaplain

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We all should be familiar with “the pause”. This involves those times of seemingly emptiness, which for me can last for a day or two. The pause tests us by giving us the opportunity to evaluate where our learning level is concerning our patience and trust; are we going to patiently wait for normalcy, knowing He is still with us, or allow place for wondering and despondency which may hint of dejection?

Similar to the process in which gold is purer after every firing, the Christian “enduring hardness” (2 Tim 2:3) results in “the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 1:7).
-NC

7-18. HIS WAY AND TIME

"That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of Cod." (Colossians 1:10).

When once we see and accept our Father's purpose for our lives to the extent that it becomes our will also, the time and details of His process cease to matter. "Thy will be done" (Luke 11:2).

"It is the knowledge of the Lord Jesus that matures the soul. Our Father chooses His opportunities to teach us these things, and when He has accomplished this work the special communications of His wisdom and love no longer continue, for He desires we should walk by faith, according to what we know we possess in the Lord Jesus. Hence our path is in company with a Christ much better known, and in much closer communion with Him.

"After receiving the instruction, we have to return to the ordinary activity of a life of responsibility, and to those relationships with our brethren in which love is developed and exercised, as it is put to "The proof, either in the assembly or in individual relationships."

"Patience is the secret of it all. We want to hurry God sometimes, but we never can. We find this at times in the desire for restoring a soul-a right thing to want, but God must first go to the bottom. "Patience requires thorough confidence in God. He is working His own purposes meanwhile, but I must follow Him, not go before Him. If I am 'strengthened. . . unto all patience,' I shall be longsuffering toward others."

"Strengthened. . . according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering" (Colossians 1:11).

WithChrist.org.

7-19. LOVED, TO LOVE

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ " (Ephesians 1:3).

His love is mine when I know what He did for me; my love is His when I know who He is to me-He who is Love, is my Life. He loved, and died; that I might live, and love. "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine" (Song of Solomon 6:3).

"My Father, in His grace, has come in and ended my history in the flesh, by the Cross, and now by the Spirit I am brought into association with His Son at His own right hand in heaven.

"The Lord Jesus wins my heart in His humiliation; He satisfies it in His glory. A won heart is not necessarily a satisfied heart. But if a heart is truly won by the Lord Jesus it never will be satisfied without Him. No heart that is won is ever satisfied but in the company of the One who won it. Absence does not 'make the heart grow fonder'! You only discover in absence what you have gained in presence. "

"We talk of difficulties and perplexities. How little the heart is really in concert, in simple concert with the Lord Jesus! He has gone up to the right hand of the Father in greater power than ever, and He is using the elevation that He has gone to, to effect deliverance for me from all things that would break fellowship between Him and me. And He uses His Word to keep me from all that would interfere with that blessed communion. "

"Thy Word have I hidden in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee " (Psalm l l 9:11).

7-20. CALVARY'S SECRET

"Partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world" (2 Peter 1:4).

We are to find out in Romans 6, through the gracious teaching of the Spirit of truth, all that happened to the Lord Jesus there on the Cross. Then we will know our own position and standing, since we were judicially in Him there.

"Have you ever thought about God's thought about you, that you are 'to be conformed to the image of His Son'? 'It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him' (Romans 8:29; 1 John 3:2).

"This cannot fail. The Lord Jesus presses on our hearts that He brings us into association with Himself. He 'hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus' (Ephesians 1:3). He puts us in this position answering perfectly to His nature, and with a nature to enjoy it."

"He imparts to us of Himself in order to qualify us for Himself. "

"Not only is my blessing in heaven, but I need the Lord Jesus' power to enable me to rise above the sense of my infirmity down here; for this world, instead of contributing to me, makes me feel my weakness and need, and that I must rise out of it to find and enjoy my blessing.

"The very infirmity which this evil age makes me conscious of makes me draw upon the power of Christ, as the One outside it, passing into the heavens, so that I take pleasure in the very infirmity which is exposed here, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. "

"God forbid that I should glory, except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ " (Galatians 6:14).

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epostle1

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Thank you, NetC, for the uplifting and edifying posts.
 

Netchaplain

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Thank you, NetC, for the uplifting and edifying posts.
Thank you too Kepha for the complement!

7-21. COUNTER-BALANCED

"Having therefore, brethren, boldness enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus" (Hebrews 10:19).

Personal knowledge of and fellowship with our risen Lord Jesus is counter-balanced by personal knowledge of and fellowship in the death of the Cross. The principle of balance prevents our slipping past the Cross and pushing into His presence.

"Where do you dwell? 'Come and see. They came. . . and abode with Him' (John 1:39). The highest satisfaction He can have is that we should be at home with Himself. He has removed the distance from His own side.

"If you believe that, you say, I will approach Him. That is one thing. The next thing is, His love is so great He delights to have your company. It is not that you will feel yourself out of place there-you will be there in all the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ."

"Our Father delights in having us with Himself. Love yearns to satisfy itself about me. It is not only that I can go in, but a much greater thing—my Father, in all His majesty and glory, can come out, All is equipoise. Not only have I entree, but I am shaped to the grandeur of the scene, conformed to the glory of God. Not admitted like a stranger, but changed into the same image; not to equality but similarity; transformed into moral correspondence." -J.B.S.

"If we are not with Him where He is, we cannot be for Him where He is not. We must be inside the veil to be outside the camp."

"Let us draw near with a true heart in fall assurance of faith " (Hebrews 10:22).

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7-22. GUARDED AND GUIDED

"My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).

How difficult it is for the hungry heart to adjust to the Father's pace. He is so deliberate and thorough, while our need is so pressing and paramount. Apart from never being behind time, our Father is an eternity ahead of time! We have but to see in the Word what He has accomplished on our behalf in the Lord Jesus, and then quietly rely upon Him, "according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3).

"God will perfect that which concerns His own; and even where there are mistakes and failures, as alas! there are in abundance with all of us, the Lord's rich grace abounds over all, and actually takes occasion from our very mistakes to shine out all the more brightly-though, assuredly, the mistakes and failures must produce their own painful and humiliating results.

"It is the remembrance of this which alone can give calm repose in the midst of the most discouraging circumstances. If we take the eye of faith off God, our souls must soon be overwhelmed. It is our privilege to be able, in our little measure, to thank God in view of everything, and take refuge in His eternal counsels, which must be made good despite all the unbelief of man, and all the malice of Satan.

"May God give us to increasingly know Him! If we had one end."only to learn what we are, we should surely be cast down, and sink into despondency; but His object in giving us a knowledge of ourselves and of His grace, is to give us an expected end."

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life" (Psalm 23:6).

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IMITATING IS IMITATION

"For to me to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:2l).

Once we learn the truth of our union with the Lord Jesus, and of the Holy Spirit's indwelling, any attempt to imitate Christ will be seen for what it is: unscriptural, and futile.

"Our Father is going to teach us, mainly through personal failure, that the life we live is the life of our Lord Jesus alone. The Christian life is not our living a life like Christ, or our trying to be Christ-like, nor is it Christ giving us the power to live a life like His; but it is Christ Himself living His own life through us; 'no longer I, but Christ.'"

"The end of Christ's incarnation, death and resurrection was to prepare and form a holy nature and frame for us in Himself, to be communicated to us by union and fellowship with Him; and not to be able to produce in ourselves the first originals of such an holy nature by our own endeavors."

"The believer's true education is in the growth of Christ within. The Church's real ministry is not multitudinous public services, so-called, but the forming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the lives of His people; the reproduction of Christ; epistles made alive by the Holy Spirit, to be seen and read of all men." -C.A.F.

"There is no answer to infidelity like the life of the Lord Jesus displayed through the Christian. Nothing puts the madness of the infidel, and the folly of the superstitious more to shame and silence than the humble, quiet, devoted walk of a thorough-going, heavenly-minded, and divinely-taught believer."

"But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you" (2 Thessalonians 3:3).

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7-24. TERMINAL CONDITION–ETERNAL POSITION

"Ye have put off the old man with his deeds" (Colossians 3 9).

Sometimes our Christian life and love are divided between the two Adams. It may be 60-40 in favor of the Last Adam, still it is shared. But the Lord Jesus paid it all, gave His all, deserves our all, requires all, because He is our ALL. Ours is to be total separation-death to the old, life in the New.

"Our Father has removed everything to His own satisfaction, and you learn in the first eleven verses of Romans 5 the terms He is on with you. It means much to the heart of the believer to know that he is received on the ground of another Man who perfectly glorified God.

"We are accepted in Him, the Beloved. God has changed His man, and you are never happy until you believe that and are able to say, I have, too. If you do not see that God has changed His man you will never change your man."

"The only way to freedom is to leave Adam for Christ-to change your man; then it is 'not I, but Christ liveth in me' (Galatians 2:20). There are two sides; one, that you are cleared from the old in the eye of God in the Cross; the other, that you are now new in Christ risen. 'For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death' (Romans 8:2). The old is held in the place of death as you walk in newness of life in the Spirit."

"And have put on the new man, that is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him." (Colossians 3:10).

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Man reaching up to God is religion; God reaching down to man is grace. What God is to man is more significant than what man is to God. Since He values us equal to His Son, the priority in all things is to focus all on Him and His Son, because Their love for us is infinitely preeminent to ours for Them. -NC


LOVE'S ETERNALITY

"The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God " (2 Thessalonians 3:5).

Between the activity of the old man and the accusations of Satan, we often find it very difficult to believe and understand that God is lovingly and legally on our side, both now and forever.

"One of the great secrets of growth is the looking upon the Lord Jesus as gracious. How strengthening it is, to know that He is at this moment feeling and exercising the same love and grace towards me as when He died upon the Cross for me. -J.N.D.

"I have got away from grace if I have the slightest doubt about God's love for me. I shall then be saying, I am not happy, because I am not what I should like to be. But, dear friend, this is not the question: the real question is, whether God is what we shall like Him to be, whether the Lord Jesus is all we could wish.

"If the consciousness of what we are in ourselves, has any other effect than, while it humbles us, to increase our adoration of what our Father is, we are off the ground of pure grace. The immediate effect of such consciousness should be to make our hearts reach out to God and to His grace as abounding over all."

"May our hearts get such a lesson in the love of the Father, that, instead of being depressed by trying circumstances, we may know that we are the objects of this wonderful love, and are being educated into it by the only One who knew it in all its power as He walked here below through this wilderness world."

"To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19).

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TREASURED TRIALS

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty' hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time" (I Peter 5:6).

The Blesser sends trials because the trials are blessings. Most covet the "blessing" of having the trial removed.

"I find the brightest summer is when the winter has been longest and most severe. The wheat, the best grain, passes a winter in the soil. The bud, the blossom, or fruit, most fragrant of Christ, is the one which nobody knows what it cost me but Himself; and where one had hardly noticed it; like the beautiful wild flowers in the hedgerow, contending with bushes and boars, to shod their fragrance on the unthankful or unthinking traveler going by."

"I think we are sometimes ready to say to the Lord— Could you not have taught me without subjecting me to so much sorrow and humiliation? The answer I have had is, You could not be effectually taught any other way. "The Lord knows the nature of the obstacle in me which He has to overcome: a less efficient hand might think that it could be dealt with in some other way.

"A weakness be it bodily or otherwise, is sometimes allowed to continue in order that there may be dependence, and when there is dependence, the weakness becomes a gain; the grit-the trying thing-is superseded by a pearl of great price." -J.B.S.

"The God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect [mature], establish, strengthen, settle you " (1 Peter 5:10).

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God's blessings to your Family this Holiday season! God Be Blessed!!

THE REAL ENEMY

"For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14).
Hatred for others comes easy for some; but to fully hate one's old man comes hard for all. The Lord Jesus loves us too much to allow us to go on loving ourselves.

"The Christian's victory is not over others, but over himself. His sword is drawn, not to slay his fellowman, but to slay himself. He wins by losing. He triumphs by being defeated. He lives by dying. His crown is a crown of thorns. His throne is a Cross. His weapon is not strength but weakness.

"His victory is not found in establishing his own cause but in establishing that of his fellow-men; the poor, the sick, the disinherited, the brokenhearted, the wayward, the lost. This may be foolishness to men. But we must not forget that 'the foolishness of God is stronger than men' (1 Corinthians 1:25). -F.J.H.

"How blessed it is to know, and at the same time how solemn to realize, that the sin of the child of God is against his Father, and that it is the love of relationship that is called into exercise about it-love which acts towards us 'for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness' " (Hebrew. 12:10).

"It is impossible that He should treat it lightly; and it will be impossible in the end for any one of His own to treat it lightly either. Grace abides towards us; and because grace abides, sin cannot be permitted to have sway over "The objects of it." -W.K.

"Let not sin, therefore, reign. . . " (Romans 6:12).

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ALL GLORY TO GOD

"Whether, therefore, ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God " (1 Corinthians 10:31).

The present and eternal ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Son; the past, present, and future ministry of the Son is to glorify the Father. Our life and ministry will bring glory to our Father to the extent that we abide in the Son, and are controlled by the Holy Spirit.

"When one's ministry or outreach flows from close communion with the Father, one's influence and moral authority will be recognized. Moreover, such a workman is not carried beyond what he has received from the Lord, so that his ministry finds sanction in hearts without any pressure.-J.N.D.

"The object of all Christian life and ministry, of whatever kind, must surely be to bring glory to God. Any lesser motive is inferior. If this were kept in the forefront of our thinking and praying, it would have two beneficial results. The hectic strain would be taken out of our lives and service, and spontaneous fruitfulness would follow.

"We can aim to meet the needs of people as a primary objective, and fret because so many of our efforts prove abortive. We may secretly pride ourselves on our ability to minister, or on our efficient service, and reap nothing but frustration. It is only when our whole outlook is made radiant by His glory, because we are hungry to do His will and that only, that our activities will be quickened into new life, and others be truly blessed." -J.C.M.

"He [Abraham]. . . was Strong in faith, giving glory to God" (Romans 4:20).

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Netchaplain

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FREE-BORN

"For I through the law died unto the law, that I might live unto God " (Galatians 2:19, ASV).

No true believer expects the Law to give life, yet many expect it to govern life. Too few realize that their death on the Cross separated them from the entire principle of law, and that their resurrection united them to the Lord Jesus, "full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).

"All of the Lord's commands to me are according to the new nature I already have. He is my life, and all His words are the of that life. Therefore when His words are given to me, they only give me the authority to do what my new nature likes to do. 'A new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in Him and in you" (1 John 2:8). -J.N.D.

"Does our Father mock us by bidding us do what He knows we are unable to do? No! He gives commands we cannot perform in our strength, that we may know what we ought to request from Him." "Legalism is an effort to shape oneself to given laws or rules. Seeking to urge oneself into conformity to law, the old man is before the eye, and satisfaction is felt according as there is conformity to a given standard.

"The moment legality is sanctioned, it must be with reference to that which needs to be made subject. This is not Christian, because as believers we are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, against which there is no law."

"Stand fast, fast, therefore, in the liberty with which Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage " (Galatians 5:1).

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The heavenly position of where the believers are is what sustains them in their earthly condition when they are continually mindful of their total dependence on God. It is when we think of ourselves “more highly than we ought to think” (Rom 12:3) that we decrease the continuity in our God-dependence.

The consistency of how we should be in our condition will be succinctly commensurate with the level of our mindfulness concerning God-dependence. The question is not how strong are we but, how strong is He? God desires us to know that He has set everything so that we need not to look within ourselves for sustenance, as if to have faith in ourselves, but to realize that since we have trusted in Him for the receiving of our salvation, we can only trust Him for the retention of the same (John 10:28, 29).

God has brought us to faith in union with Himself (John 6:44) and it is Him, not ourselves, which is “able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory” (Jude 1:24). Your position in God is your place with Christ, because “your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3). If those who professes to be in Christ eventually display a lifestyle of sin, it will become obvious they have never entered into faith (1 John 2:19).

Therefore, “as He is” (our position), “so are we in this world” (our condition); 1 John 4:17.
NC

LET GOD BE GOD!

"Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God" (Philippians 1:11).

It goes without saying that Christianity is a vertical relationship with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. But are your arrows pointing up, or down? "Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually" (Hebrews 13:15).

"Grace is the Father's favor to man according to His own heart, and for His own glory. If the need of man were the sole measure of His grace, then man only would be thought of, the work of the Lord Jesus would be simply for man, and the power of God expended merely in rescuing man and securing his relief. Man would be the object and end of it all, and not God." -J.B.S.

"When I have rest in the Lord Jesus, then I begin to find all my joy and strength in Him, and I occupy myself with Him. This is the foundation of true devoutness. I do not become devoted in the true sense until I have found my rest in Him. I am, up to this, rather looking to receive from Him. I am more an object to myself; but when I find how fully I am an object to Him, then my heart is at liberty to make Him its object, He having made me His." -J.B.S.

"When the advantages of grace do not call forth praise to the Father, when He is not prominently before the soul, as the source of everything possessed, then the gifts take the place of the Giver in the heart, and must soon lose their vigor and value like flowers cut away from their roots."

"The great question is, not whether I see a certain thing, and how it stands in relation to me, but do I see it as my Father sees it, and as it stands in relation to Him?"

"Unto him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without end. Amen" (Ephesians 3:21).

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SERVlCEABlLITY

"Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to test you, as though some strange thing happened unto you" (1 Peter 4:12).

The joy of sowing is exceeded only by the joy of harvesting; and yet both sowing and reaping are a matter of death.

"If we follow and note the history and ways of any true servant of the Lord, we shall see, that on the one side they, like Moses on the Mount, or Paul in Arabia, are entranced with the brightness and most marvelous display of divine glory; yet on man's side, those who know most of the divine ways, suffer most because of the indifference of those who have professed to be the Lord's people.

"It is nowhere admitted in Scripture that a servant can be merely the herald of the light of God's grace; that is, that he should only have the joyful side of service. For every real servant, be he evangelist, teacher, or anything else, there must be the side of suffering, burden, and humiliation."

"We must bear in mind that, while it is the Father's purpose, in His dealings with Job, to vindicate His own estimate of His servant; it is, at the same time, shown us how He educates or disciplines that servant so as to render him worthy of that estimate."

"In every trial, however gloomy, there are gleams of light and relief; but full deliverance is often delayed by our anxiety to obtain it. God Himself, and not the deliverance, is to be the satisfaction of His servant; consequently the deliverance is often postponed until we are without prospect or expectation of it; and then it may be accorded in a manner so transcendently beyond our conception, that we must see and understand the love and interest which surrounded us during the whole period of our trial."

"But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy" (1 Peter 4:3)

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NO HUNGER–NO GROWTH

"Let us go on and get past the elementary stage. . . advancing steadily toward the completeness. . . that belongs to spiritual maturity" (Hebrews ;6:1, Amp.).

The birth truths of Romans 1-5 are not meant for our spiritual growth. The growth truths of Romans 6-8 are presented for our spiritual development and maturity. The Reformation brought back the birth truths, but the Cross and the Life truths are necessary for our growth.

"So many rest content with the thought that their sins are pardoned, and that they are in the path of life, but know nothing of a personal attachment to the risen Lord Jesus Christ as their life, or of faith that lives in the invisible and walks with the Father.

"With many this is the consequence of the hopelessness that came from the failure of their utmost efforts to live as they
desired. They struggled in their own strength; they lost heart, they went back. The profession of faith is not cast away; religious habits are kept up; but there is nothing to show that they have entered or are seeking to enter the Holiest to dwell there.

"The power of the world, the spirit of its literature, and temptations of business and pleasure, all unite to make up a religion in which it is sought to combine a comfortable hope for the future with the least possible amount of sacrifice in the present." -A.M.

"Struggle and effort in themselves will never secure blessing, but by leading to despair and complete self-disgust they serve a divine purpose in the experience of the soul. I would rather see a soul in honest exercise, however legal he was, than see the light and careless acceptance of divine truth. I do not think God gives anything without preparing us for it by making us feel the need and value of it. It is a divine principle that 'He satisfieth the longing soul' (Psalm 107:9)." -C.A.C.

"He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger" (Deuteronomy 8:3).

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The doing of the will of God centers more on passivity than activity; passive on our part and active on His. Because our Adamic nature is a leaven which unavoidably mixes with what we do, the doing of God’s will on our part is in yielding to His Spirit to work through and by us into bringing about the Father’s desires concerning everything in our lives.

When we “yield” ourselves to God (Rom 6:13), it is the new self (new man), not the old self (old man) that we present to Him and through this new nature we realize the substance of the doing is not of us but the Spirit and thus, He has His way; “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man” (Eph 3:16).

W.J. Hocking’s comment adds some light to the issue: “Man had no life from which the Father could expect anything and so he gave a new life in His Son, that He may produce it. Do I find sins rather? He is the propitiation for our sins. I believe that and enter into fellowship”.

“Why do you find fear and torment when you find sin in yourself? Cannot you trust that love? Have you had the Father on your neck in your rages (Luke 15:20). You must know the love your Father has for you and then you know Him. His Son is your righteousness; why should you not have rest? “As He is, so are we in this world.”

“The effect of grace is that we should feel sin and know it’s blotted out (Acts 3:19) in Him, as well as our old life (old man). “The glory thou hast given Me I have given them . . . that the world may know that . . . thou hast loved them, as thou hast loved Me” (John 17:22, 23). “There is no fear in love.” It is a matter of fellowship. “Perfect love casteth out all fear.”
NC

FROM LAW TO LIFE

"Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24).

As sinners, the law revealed our need of deliverance from the penalty of sin; as believers, the law reveals our need of deliverance from the power of sin.

"Our Father knows that we are weakness incarnate; that we can do nothing. The trouble is that we do not know it. He must bring us all to the place where we see that we are utterly weak and helpless.

"The more we try to keep the law the more our weakness is manifested and the deeper we get into Romans Seven, until it is clearly demonstrated to us that we are hopelessly weak. The Father knew it all the time, but we did not, and so He has to bring us through painful experiences to a recognition of the fact."

"'It is God who worketh in you' (Philippians 2:13). Deliverance from law does not mean that we are free from doing the will of our Father. It certainly does not mean that we are going to be lawless. Quite the opposite! What it does mean however is that we are free from doing that will as of ourselves.

"Being fully persuaded that we cannot do it, we cease trying to please God from the ground of the old man. Having at least reached the point of utter despair in ourselves so that we cease even to try, we put our trust in the Lord Jesus to manifest His resurrection life in and through us, 'that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit' (Romans 8:4)."

"What would be effected by the law, if all its commands and precepts were carried out and maintained? It would form man in the flesh; it would make Adam what he ought to be for God in the world. The law would form Adam in us." -C.A.C.

"I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord" (Romans 7:25).
 

Netchaplain

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HIDDEN TO REVEAL

"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16).

As we walk in the Spirit, worship in the Spirit, and pray in the Spirit, we shall come to know, not the Spirit, but the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus explicitly said, "He (the Comforter) shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you" (John 16:14, 15)

"What is it to 'walk in the Spirit' (Galatians 5:16)? It is to walk in communion with the Father, in dependence upon the Spirit, having the Lord Jesus as my one object. What held the attention of Stephen, 'full of faith and of the Holy Spirit' (Acts 6:5)? Two things: the Word of God on earth, and the Christ of God in heaven (Acts 7:55)."

"To walk in the Spirit is not self-occupation, nor even occupation with the Spirit. Walking according to the Spirit is occupation with the Lord Jesus. When the believer looks to the Lord Jesus, depends upon Him, draws all he needs from Him–if the Lord Jesus is his all, then the believer walks in the Spirit." -A.C.G.

"To be Spirit-controlled does not mean the loss of free-agency. A free agent acts as he pleases, and the Spirit-controlled individual pleases to act in accordance with the mind and will of the Spirit." -A.McC.

"'I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not (in no way) fulfill the lust of the flesh' (Galatians 5:16). It might be objected, if a Christian were not under the restraint of the law that his life might be careless. The 'no way' of our verse forbids such a notion." -H.F.W.

"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2) .

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ON TO MATURITY

"That I may know him" (Philippians 3:10).

"The one unchanging factor on this earth is the Word of God. It is upon the written Word, and in the Living Word, that the Christian life is to be established. Yet there are Christians throughout the world who are seeking to get along on the basis of questionable blessings, and fluctuating self-centered experiences.

"How many rest on the initial step of the new birth, 'Begotten again. . . of incorruptible seed through the word of God' (1 Peter 1:23), and fail to press on to know 'Begotten. . . by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. . . unto an inheritance' (1 Peter 1:3).

"If our hearts are really true to Him we may be assured He will lead us on in the knowledge of Himself just as fast as we are able to advance. He knows how much we can take in, and He does not fail to minister to us the very food that is suitable to our present need. We may sometimes feel inclined to be impatient with ourselves because we do not make more rapid progress, but we have to learn to trust the Lord with our spiritual matriculation.

"If our eyes are upon the Lord Jesus, and we follow with steadfast hearts as He leads us, we shall find that He leads us by the right way and brings us through all the exercises we need in order to form our souls in the appreciation of Himself, and of all those blessed things which are brought to pass in Him. We have to trust Him all the way through, and to learn increasingly to distrust ourselves." -W.N.

"The enemy will encourage you to do anything but carry out the systematic, Spirit-taught study of the Bible. He will give religious experiences, feelings and pious thoughts–all apart from God's Word. Do not be deceived. The Scriptures are our only sustenance–there are no substitutes." -J.B.

"Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord" (Hosea 6:3).

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PRAYER PREPARATION

"He shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and fit for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work" (2 Timothy 2:21).

"Prepared unto every good work"–especially prayer.

"It does not follow that because a thing is the will of God, He will necessarily lead you to pray for it. He may have other burdens for you. We must get our prayers from God, and pray to know His will. God was dealing with Hudson Taylor for fifteen years before He laid upon him the burden of definite prayer for the foundation of the China Inland Mission (now the Overseas Missionary Fellowship).

"Our Father is not in a hurry. He cannot do things with us until we are trained and ready for them. We may be certain He has further service, further burdens of faith and prayer to give us when we are ready for them." -J.O.F.

"In the true 'prayer of faith' the intercessor must spend time with the Father to appropriate the promises of His Word, and must permit himself to be taught by the Holy Spirit, whether the promises can be applied to this particular case. He remains in the presence of God, till He, by His Spirit, awakens the faith that in this particular matter the prayer has been heard." -A.M.

"In praying there are two alternatives set before us. The one, prayer as a means by which we get from heaven what we need. The other, prayer as infinite grace of God, lifting us up into His fellowship and love, and then when He has thus brought us to Himself, bestowing upon us the blessing we need. In the former case, the gifts that I can receive through prayer are the chief things. In the latter, God and His love, and fellowship with Him, and the surrender of the suppliant to His glory and His will is the supreme objective." -A.M.

"Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving" (Colossians 4:2).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

“Labor to Rest”: Heb 4:11

Our work is not to come from the strength of the “old man”, which is our “own works”, but from the Spirit in the inner man or “new man” (Eph 3:16); “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord” (Zec 4:6). We are to love God “with all our strength”; --“which answers to the phrase in Deuteronomy 6:5, "with all thy might"; “that is, with the greatest vehemency of affection, in the strongest expressions of it, and with all the strength of grace (Spirit) a man has” (parentheses mine) –J Gill.

God used six days to create everything, and then on the seventh day from the beginning of the first day He rested. That is, He rested or ceased from creating and will never need to repeat it, for “God ended His work which He had made” (Gen 2:2).

The believer rests from his “own works” in order to rest in His works; “For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His (Heb 4:10). God, through His Spirit and in the “acceptance” of His Son (Eph 1:6) uses us to do His will in His strength and this is exemplified by the understanding of “entering into His rest” (Heb 3:11, 18, 19; 4: 1-11).

God did not expect Adam, Israel or the rest of mankind to learn to live this life completely free of any thoughts or actions of sin; “according to His own purpose” and “after the counsel of His own will (2 Tim 1:9; Eph 1:11), He has chosen, from eternity past, to allow our sin nature to remain (Rom 7) “until the redemption of the purchased possession” (Eph 1:14; Rom 8:23) and therefore, it stands to reasonable assumption that the believer cannot possess the sin source without ever being affected by it.

We are to be aware of its presence and “live circumspectly . . . redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Eph 5:15, 16). We are also to be mindful that “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Rom 5:20). The key is not to seek in ourselves that for which is to be found only in God's Son, which is righteousness, and since it is imputed to us from Christ (1 Cor 1:30), it is what our Father regards in us in place of the unrighteousness in our "old man".
-NC

REST VIA STRUGGLE

"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).

Hard as it is for the believer to finally come to rest concerning his spiritual birth, it seems to be even more difficult for him to simply rest in the Lord Jesus for his life and service.

"There are two stages in the Christian life. The one in which, after conversion, a believer seeks to work what God would have him do. The second, in which, after many a painful failure, he ceases from his works, and enters the rest of God, there to find the power for work in allowing the Father to work in him.

"It is this rest from their own work which many Christians cannot understand. They think of it as a state of passive and selfish enjoyment, of still contemplation which leads to the neglect of the duties of life, and unfits for that watchfulness and warfare to which Scripture calls. What an entire misunderstanding of God's call to rest!

"Truly to rest in God is to yield oneself up to the highest activity. We work, because He worketh in us both to will and to do (Philippians 2:13). As Paul says of himself, 'I labor, striving according to his working who worketh in me with might' (Colossians 1:29). Entering the rest of God is the ceasing from self-effort, and the yielding of oneself in the full surrender of faith to God's working." -A.M.

"Not only does the Lord Jesus live in us, but He becomes the motivating Object of our life as Christians. The law is no longer our motive or rule of life. It is entirely displaced by a Person, and that Person 'the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.' Henceforth the soul has a new center and source--it is no longer self-centered, but Christ-centered." -C.A.C.

"Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:29).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

BELOVED ENEMY - Miles J Stanford

"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree" (Galatians 3:13).

The legal Christian considers the law to be his best friend who will enable him to live righteously. But in reality the law, in the hands of the Holy Spirit, is his beloved enemy. The Spirit's purpose is to bring the well-meaning believer down into defeat, wretched and ready to realize, "I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord" (Romans 7:25).

"It is perhaps the most alarming symptom of decay to be seen amongst evangelical believers today, that so many have accepted (at any rate mentally) the fact that they cannot be justified before God except by the sacrifice for sin once made for all upon Calvary, proceed to build a new legal code by which to live, and seek to be sanctified by their own efforts and endeavors.

"The more conscientious, when faced with the failure of this scheme of things, become the victims of the condemnation of the 'accuser of the brethren'; and take their place among the great company of Christian men and women who are constantly beset with doubts and fears, and who, often in spite of intense activity in the cause of the Gospel, are living in the conscious bitterness of defeat. " -J.C.M.

"The law cannot be broken or divided. It stands as a unit. To undertake any part of it is to be committed to it all. Nothing can be more unreasonable or more unscriptural than to borrow some portions from the law system, either that of Moses or of the millennial kingdom, and, at the same time, reject other portions. He who will choose the law must, to be consistent, do the whole law (Romans 10:5), and if he should break it at one point, he is guilty of all (James 2:10)." -L.S.C.
"The law was our schoolmaster. . . . But after faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster" (Galatians 3:24, 25).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

It has been said that “the unsaved needs deliverance from the guilt of sin and the saved needs deliverance from the dominion of sin”. Though the believer has trusted Christ for his place in salvation, there remains the need for learning to trust Him for our walk in salvation.

This is summed up in understanding that our acceptance with the Father will always be solely upon our being “accepted in the Beloved” (Eph 1:6), and that His divine attributes (holiness, righteousness and justification) cannot be produced but only vicariously possessed—in the possessing of Christ. All of these godly attributes are part of us being “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4); thus, they come not from us, but from Him in us through His Spirit and we can only witness-bearers to this.
- NC

CHURCH PLIGHT

"For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God" (Acts 20:27).

In regard to the external Cross, the obvious fact is that "Christ died for our sins." As to the internal Cross, while not so obvious, it is still a fact that we are to be "always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (2 Corinthians 4:11).

"Popular Fundamentalist theology has emphasized the utility of the Cross rather than the beauty of the One who died on it. The saved man's relation to the Lord Jesus has been made contractual instead of personal. The 'work' of Christ has been stressed until it has eclipsed the Person of Christ. Substitution has been allowed to supersede identification. What He did for us seems to be more important than what He did to us." -A.W.T.

"The death of the Lord Jesus was not only an atonement for sins, but a triumph over sin. By faith we see our sins not only on His head for our pardon, but sin under His feet for our deliverance. Multitudes who glory in the outward Cross know nothing of that inward crucifixion which it has also made possible, whereby they are delivered from the power of self and sin, the world, the flesh, and the devil. That they do not know: That their 'old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, so that they should no longer be in bondage to sin' (Romans 6:6)." -G.M.

"We are not only to take by faith the fact that the Lord Jesus died for us to pay the price and penalty of our sins, but we are to appropriate by faith the fact that He also took us to the Cross with Him. In Christ, God put to death our old man that we might be delivered from the power and dominion of sin in our lives. So the story of the pathway of faith begins with Calvary and our identification with the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus." -G.M.

"You were set free from the tyranny of sin" (Romans 6:18, Wey.).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

The believer, Jew or Gentile, now under the “New Covenant” (new in its dispensation, not in its conception from eternity past) has been separated from law; the Jew from the Law of Moses (Josh 8:31) and the Gentile from the “law unto themselves” (Rom 2:14, 15).

It goes from the knowledge of morality to the desire of godliness. This is the difference between having to be told (law) to desire good, due to the lack of an unbroken desire for good (which only proceeds from God; Mat 19:17), and having the continuous desire for being good instilled (grace) within. In this way our actions derive from “newness of spirit (grace), and not in the oldness of the letter (law)” (Rom 7:6).

The transition is from the old commandment of “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Lev 19:18) to the greater work of “a new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John 13:34).
- NC

SACRIFICIAL SERVICE - Miles J Stanford

"For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (2 Corinthians 4:11).

The growing Christian is often accused of passivity by the doing Christian. The Lord Jesus was not passive; the Apostle Paul was not passive; nor is the believer passive who seeks to "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18). Compulsive activity is not necessarily fruitful, as the "works of the flesh" attest.

"The Lord keep you in the freshness of faith in Himself, going forth in His work, not undertaking more than He gives you grace for. I have pressed upon my brethren not to give up their secular employment until the work of the Lord so increased upon them that they must give up one or the other."

"The one who knows best the Father's love will be the best exponent of that love--the best qualified servant for the Father to send on a mission of interest to those who are ignorant of it. Abide in Him. 'The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him' (John 1:18)."

"Under the Mosaic law-system, love for others was to be in the degree in which one loved himself; under grace it is to be in the degree in which the Lord Jesus has loved the believer and given His life for him (1 John 3:16)." -L.S.C.

"Perversion of truth takes its rise from having the eye turned to man, and seeking to make the truth suit him, and not to conform man to the truth; so that the way to resolve this difference is by the simple question, Is it God-ward I am looking, or man-ward?"

"If you only know the work of the Lord Jesus you are prepared to make sacrifices, but if you know Him as your life then you are ready to suffer for Him."

"So then death worketh in us, but life in you" (2 Corinthians 4:12).

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HEART TO HEART - Miles J Stanford

"That I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:12).

Our spiritual puppy-love is soon lost, to be replaced through the years by our bridal-love. The bride always gravitates to her Bridegroom. "My beloved spoke, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away" (Song of Solomon 2:10).

"All of our Father's arrangements for us, if rightly accepted, will lead us above, instead of binding us to what is here below. His gifts come down to ease us in a world like this, that our hearts may rise the easier to the scene where He displays the fullness of His love for us.

"And if there be chastening in the circumstances here, it is only to detach us the more effectively from all here, and to lead us to the place where He has given all to us. So that seeing the things above ensures every good thing for us in every condition."

"You may know the Lord Jesus as your relief–for what He has done; but it is quite another thing to know Him as your resource–for what He is. It is one thing to know Him as the One who has relieved you from every pressure, it is another thing to know Him as the One attraction of your heart." -J.B.S.

"The Lord grant that you may know the wonderful blessing, and portion of light and joy we are brought into, instead of going through the world trying to overcome this and that, and saying, 'I must give up this thing and the other.' It is not a question of giving up at all; but I have something better, greater, brighter, and I just let it drop."

"Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord" (Philippians 3:8).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

OINTMENT POURED FORTH - Miles J Stanford

"Death working in me works life in you" (2 Corinthians 4:12, Cony.).

At first the heart hunger for maturity in the Lord Jesus is personal, subjective–and necessarily so. Later, when the path to maturity is known and entered upon, this hunger is projected to His Body, and becomes sacrificially objective.

"The great lack in servants is not having a sufficiently self-less walk, because you cannot lead anyone beyond where you have been led yourself. Moses was himself many years in the wilderness before he led the people. I cannot ask anyone to leave anything that I have not left myself. It is not the man who sees defects, but the man who removes them who is being used of God."

"Will you choose the path of death that others may have life? Will you choose to 'fill up the afflictions of Christ for His Bride's sake'? But what does it mean? It means living, weeping, suffering, loving with infinite patience, infinite tenderness, unwearying love for every member of the Body of Christ. It means the whole being bound up, not in your own progress, but in the progress of the Body of Christ. It means sinking all the personal element into the service of God, wanting neither credit, nor notice, nor recognition. It means an utter dropping of yourself, and a handing over of yourself to God to be poured out for His Body's sake, the Church."

"The unwearied care of our Father for us, His patient grace, His gentleness, His leading us on from the world nearer, in spirit, to Himself, indicate what should be the character of our love's activity towards one another. Our joy in the Father's presence, as He Himself and His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, are made manifest to our hearts, gives us the character of the joy of true fellowship one with another." -H.F.W.

"I, Paul. . . rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake, which is the church" (Colossians 1:23, 24).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

MY FATHER'S CHOICE - Miles Stanford

"What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter" (John 13:7).

When our Lord takes us down into an area of processing and trial it seems as though He deliberately takes away our understanding, and we often react as though we had never gone through anything before. One of His reasons for this is that we may receive the full effect and benefit of the child-training.

"We should give our consent to our Father when He seeks to lead us through devastating processes. And we need have no fear, for He knows how to apportion our suffering. He exactly matches the suffering to our condition. He measures all things with unfailing accuracy and selects the particular trial suited to our particular need.

"He invariably chooses the lot of each with this in view–an increase of the divine content in our lives. If He chastens us, it is always 'for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.' And 'all things work together for good to them that are called according to his purpose.' What good? What purpose? This, 'that we may be conformed to the image of his Son.'"

"Let suffering come from any cause in the universe, if we give it over entirely into the hand of our Father, and sink ourselves into His blessed will, with the desire for Him to work His purpose in us, He will make every pain, every tear, every particle of our suffering work in us a death to sin and to the old man, and to all things on earth which will be for our highest development and for His glory." -G.W.

"If we lay claim to the blessing of our Father, we must not fear what may lie in the path of blessing. It is ever through suffering to glory, through the Cross to the Crown." -O.S.

"In every circumstance of life be thankful; for this is God's will in Christ Jesus respecting you" (1 Thessalonians 5:18, Wey.).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

SELF-IMPOSED BURDEN -- Miles J Stanford

"Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1).

Few see and stand upon the fact that our history in Adam ended on the Cross. Our past will plague us until we acknowledge that we are now clear of Adam and safely hidden in the risen Lord Jesus–newly-born creations in Him. One of the penalties of self-occupation is self-pity and corroding remorse.

"Regret for a sinful past will remain until we truly believe that for us in the Lord Jesus that sinful past no longer exists. The man in Christ has only His past and that is perfect and acceptable to the Father. In the Lord Jesus he died, and in Him he rose, and he is now seated in Him within the circle of the Father's favored ones. He is no longer angry with himself because he is no longer self-regarding, but Christ-regarding: hence there is no place for regret."

"The knowledge of our union with the Lord Jesus is what will deliver the believer from all that is low and feeble, and will lift him to a life of joy and peace. To gaze upon our risen Lord in the Father's presence, to whom all things are subject, will transform us into heavenly Christians, dwelling all the day in the Father's presence." -A.M.

"The believer shares the Lord Jesus' Cross ('knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him' Romans 6:6); His death ('ye died and your life is hid with Christ in God' Colossians 3:3); His burial ('we were buried with him by baptism into death' Romans 6:4); His resurrection ('as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we' Romans 6:4); His ascension ('made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus' Ephesians 2:6)." -F.J.H.

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

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

LIFELESS LAW - Miles J Stanford

"For if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law" (Galatians 3:21).

Paul devoted two full chapters to establish our freedom from the fallen Adam. Romans Six sets forth our freedom from the dominion of Adamic sin; Romans Seven explains our freedom from Adamic law.
Whereas our liberty was won on the Cross, it is worked out in our daily life and experience by the Holy Spirit. On the Cross, by the Spirit, in the Lord Jesus Christ.

"If ministers and teachers of God's Word would set saints free and establish them in the Gospel, let their preaching and teaching be based upon the sixth and seventh of Romans, the central theme of which is our union with the Lord Jesus in death and burial; and our resurrection and ascension with Him into newness of life; where not the law, but grace, reigneth; where not the letter but the Spirit, moveth the heart and life of the believer. Satan will fight most fiercely against such teaching, but no other will establish the Lord's people."

"If God has declared that we died, we did die. If God has declared us discharged from the law, we are discharged and are hereby God's free children, 'new creatures,' 'created after God in righteousness and true holiness.'

"Our longing for conformity to the image of God's Son shall be confirmed and fulfilled by the Holy Spirit who hath been given unto us. No man can believe he has a right to walk freely and fully in the Spirit until he believes himself to be free from the law." -W.R.N.
"Law cannot give eternal life, nor have, therefore, any control over it." -L.S.C.

"But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held" (Romans 7:6, ASV.).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

Personal Righteousness

We are not to be as Peter when he said, “Depart from me, I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). There may be good desires and tenderness of conscience, but it will run into legality, because of not resting in the favor of the Father. These experiences may be all very useful in their place, but they are not peace. We have peace made and divine righteousness wrought out. I can now look upon my Father without hiding my sin. The way I come to the sense of the immensity of sin is the immensity of the grace that has met it all.

The reality of the presence of the Holy Spirit, who has come down to dwell in us, is most important. He is given as a seal. The Lord Jesus said, “If I go away, I will send Him unto you.” The Comforter brings to me the fullness of His grace, being the witness of accepted righteousness to our hearts. He convicts, or demonstrates of righteousness and that righteousness is mine in the Lord Jesus. He is made unto us righteousness (1 Cor 1:30) and I stand in it because I stand in Him.

The Spirit convicts the world of sin, of unbelief; but His demonstration to me is of righteousness—righteousness wrought out for me, which my Father has accepted. Now He is perfectly free to bless. My thought now is not, I am so full of sin that He cannot bless me; but rather, my Father has accepted the righteousness of His Son and I stand in that (Eph 1:6). We are born of God and as such need something to bring to Him. It is all furnished in the One who is my Christian life (Col 3:4).

There is not only peace as to the past, but I have the Lord Jesus’ standing in the presence of the Father now (Eph 2:13). We stand in the Last Adam and have that Second Man’s position in virtue of our eternal redemption. So sure as I had the first Adam’s place as totally rejected because a sinner, so I have the Last Adam’s place as totally accepted according to the counsel of the Father in the Son (Eph 1:11).

At the end of John 17 we have the Lord Jesus’s righteousness title (v 22) spoken of. He is bound to bless. “I am glorified in them.” He could not bless sin, but now righteousness being perfected, all the purposes of His heat in love can flow out to us, because we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Cor 5:21). Whatever the love of God – the righteousness of God – all that by which He stands in the presence of the Father, because of His work and Person, we have and are blessed in virtue of it all. –G V Wigram

ANOTHER, ALTOGETHER - Miles J Stanford

"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him" (Matthew 17:5).

Seeing the blackness of my heart provides the perfect backdrop for the bright and shining glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is my life. I am to be as well pleased with Him, and Him alone, as is my Father.

"The learning of what I am and of what I have been in Adam, is truly humbling; but it need not be distressing if I see that all those conditions which have been present with me have just been the occasion for my Father to bring to light what is in His heart concerning me. When I see this, those very conditions magnify before my soul the greatness of His salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

"The weakness that is in myself, and the many things which I have to deplore in my past, or perhaps even in my present, make me thankful to know that my Father has brought in another Man, and has secured in Him all his own thoughts of blessing manward.

"There is what is perfect and absolutely for God's satisfaction and delight in the Lord Jesus, and it remains unaffected by what I find in myself. Nay! every self-discovery makes His perfection more a necessity to my heart. What I learn and experience in myself makes me rejoice to believe on Another in whom every promise of God is Yea and Amen." -C.A.C.

"The secret of being like the Lord Jesus is, that we are to count ourselves dead to the old and alive in the new. We are to give up our self-efforts after likeness to Him; we are to distrust our own strength as much as we distrust our own weakness and our own sin; and instead of striving to live like the Lord Jesus, let Him live through us, as He greatly desires to do."

"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

REIGN IN PAIN - Miles J Stanford

"For you have had the privilege granted you on behalf of Christ–not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer on His behalf" (Philippians 1:29, Wey.).

The Father prepares His sufferers, by means of their sufferings.

"I believe in perpetual favor with God, but I do not believe in unbroken sunshine here. On the contrary, 'we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake.' I say this that you may not think it strange when the collar which you have rightly accepted becomes trying or difficult to you; for surely if it be service it must be so; the servant must be more or less a sufferer."

"The Lord grant you to be so assured in heart of His interest in you, that daily you may more and more answer to His pleasure; and not be in any way cast down because you apparently do so little. The fragrance of His name is a crown of glory to the greatest invalid."

"'Unto you is given on the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake' (Philippians 1:29). Yea, 'if we suffer, we shall also reign with him' (2 Timothy 2:12). The gracious gift of suffering is as distinct and specific a gift as any other of God's gifts. But this gift transforms the blessed recipient more surely perhaps than all the others into resemblance to Himself, and is for this fellowship, the highest, greatest, noblest of them all."

"We naturally shrink from trials and sorrow, but when we find ourselves enjoying the resources that are in our Father, to which our trials have caused us to have recourse, we remember no more the path of affliction which led us thereto."

"The child of God is ever in the light, though not always in the sunshine."

"If we suffer, we shall also reign with him" (2 Timothy 2:12).

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UP HERE! - Miles J Stanford

"And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6).

The spiritual babe has faith for the wondrous fact that he will go to heaven when he dies. The spiritual father has faith for the inexpressible fact that he has died in Christ, and that he is now hid with Him in God.

"When I look at this place, He is not here; and when I look at myself naturally I am not fit for Him. How happy then to know that I belong to the place where He is; and that through grace I am made suited to Him in that new place; so that I set my mind and affections there, as the place where my deepest joys are to be realized." -J.B.S.

"The truth is, we have a position in heaven and the Lord Jesus is now our life there; and if this be not simply enjoyed, there will be an effort to modify the desolation here, and an inability to interpret the various inroads which death makes on us."

"My taste is formed in glory, and there it is nurtured and strengthened, and as it is, so do I find nothing here in keeping with my taste. Association with the Son of Man, the One most perfect, and in every way the most beautiful, develops my new nature, which is the same as His. Where He is, is my home–there I feed and rest; but here, on earth, I am learning to set aside in death everything in me which hinders the manifestation of the life of the Lord Jesus." -J.B.S.

"The reason there is so little growth is that there is so little occupation and fellowship with the Lord Jesus where He is. The glory invites now, instead of the law repelling, and the practical effect is 'changed into the same image.'"

"For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3, ASV.).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

HE DARES TO DISCIPLINE! - Miles J Stanford

"My son, do not think lightly of the Lord's discipline, and do not faint when he corrects you" (Hebrews 12:6, Wey.).

Most of us sought to avoid our natural father's discipline, when he sought to administer it. And most of us seek to avoid our heavenly Father's discipline, until we finally learn that "He does it for our certain good, in order that we may become sharers in His own holy character" (Hebrews 12:10, Wey.).

"There is an idea that often troubles people, namely, that God always wants to bring us down when He chastens us. When He corrects a man it is not that He may bring him down, but that He may lift him up. He says, 'Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time' (1 Peter 5:6). I discipline my child in order that I may exalt him morally."

"Our Father purges us on the principle of 'we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake.' In service you are sure to find some kind of pressure on you.

"It may be on your body, and often is; or it may be persecution; but you will hardly ever have a fruitful field of service before you, unless you are crippled for it. 'He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.'"

"We come to feel our need, and often attempt independently to supply it by our own means; the Lord must confound us in the attempt; but having done so, He leads in dependence to find and acquire an inconceivably greater answer to our wishes than even that which we prescribed for ourselves. The prodigal only sought 'sustenance' from the citizen in the 'far country,' but back in his father's house he found not bread merely, but abounding welcome and a fatted calf."

"For those whom the Lord loves he disciplines: and he scourges every son whom he acknowledges" (Hebrews 12:6, Wey.).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

THE LAST IS FIRST - Miles J Stanford

"As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly" (1 Corinthians 15:48).

Christians have a poor self-image simply because they are thinking and looking upon the condemned and crucified first-Adam life within, instead of being occupied with their glorified Last-Adam life above. "Beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory" (2 Corinthians 3:18).

"'If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new' (2 Corinthians 5:17). Does this not mean a new sort of creature, as the Word implies? Do we go back to Adam, the innocent man in the garden in which God set him to dress and keep? No, that would be no creature new in kind. Adam even, pure and good before his fall, was yet of the earth, earthy.

"Is the Lord Jesus but the first man set up afresh? No, He is 'the second man, the Lord from heaven.' He is a heavenly man, the Last Adam–head of a new race; beginning of a new creation–and you and I who believe are 'in Him,' seen and accepted before the Father 'in His Beloved.' The full image of Him we have not yet: true. That will be ours in the day of His coming. The thing we are!" -F.W.G.

"A sinner in himself, the believer has, by faith, taken upon him the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is 'in Him,' he has been made the righteousness of God in Him. He is 'accepted in the Beloved' (Ephesians 1:6). Faith alone gives him all this comeliness. He has been recreated in the Lord Jesus. This is the beauty of the believer; and he is lovely in the eye of the Lord Jesus. 'So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty; for he is thy Lord, and worship thou him' (Psalm 45:11)." -J.C.B.

"And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (1 Corinthians 15:49).

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MANSION THERE–MISSION HERE - Miles J Stanford

"The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God; and if children, then heirs" (Romans 8:16, 17).

It is the Holy Spirit alone who can draw us from the flesh and its earthly environment. He does it in the practical sense by manifesting to our hearts, via the Word of God, the risen Lord Jesus Christ in our heavenly environment. "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts" (Romans 13:14).

"When the Lord Jesus' love is before you, you find this love is drawing you from darkness to light. He begins by showing His desire for your spiritual advancement, and not by advancing you in earthly position.

"It is beautiful to see that the work of true love is to set aside darkness, or whatever would interfere with fellowship; and therefore it is not esteemed as it ought to be, because we are looking for something on the earth, and the tendency is to judge of His love by earthly gifts or favors down here."

"We have died with the Lord Jesus out of our old Adam position: our old man was crucified with Him. The flesh is in us still indeed, but in us a foreign thing; we are not in it before God, nor identified with it in any wise, but with Him in whom it was never found. We are in Him, as He is and where He is.

"Can we say quite confidently, each for himself, 'Yes, we are identified with Him who represents us there before the eye of our Father–as He is, in whom no spot was ever found nor can be, but perfectness after God's own heart wholly'?
"That is to be in Christ–a new creature. Our rule is, to walk in Him, as being what we really are–heavenly, citizens of heaven, pilgrims and strangers upon earth." -F.W.G.

"Heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ–if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together" (Romans 8:17).

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FROM HERE TO THERE - Miles J Stanford

"But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ" (Philippians 3:7).

When we finally understand that the Lord Jesus is our life, we, with Paul, no longer think in terms of things.

"Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit" (John 15:2).

"One may eat with an appetite and feel revived, but the sense of life or sustainment from the food in the hour of toil, is a far greater and better thing. Thus, you have to learn now that the Lord is with you, however great may be the winds and the waves; and that He is with you to prove to you now the value of the truth about Himself, which He has heretofore taught you. The learning is at one time (head), the proving (heart) at another." -J.B.S.

"Our Father must wean us. Oh, what days and nights of bitter tears we shed when the soul is being weaned from some long enjoyed mercy. Is it that He who gave His Son for us would not indulge us? Is it that our Father would deny us anything? No, but He must wean us, or we shall never know what it is to depend on Him apart from any human or natural intervention."

"The Lord Jesus before our souls in the power of the Holy Spirit–the glorified Lord–is our Father's means for bringing us into conformity with His beloved Son. But then it is through the chastenings of His hand, through the trials and sufferings of our path, that He weans the hearts of His own from other objects, that the Lord Jesus Christ alone may fill the vision of our souls." -E.D.

"It is quite right to obtain a knowledge of Scripture, as to its general meaning. It is well to read and get knowledge, but unless you are in communion with the Lord Jesus, you will not grow in likeness to what you admire, as recorded in the Word."

"And I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord" (Philippians 3:8).

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Wishing everyone the Lord's best Holiday wishes for Christmas!

"RISE UP, MY LOVE" - Miles J Stanford

"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth" (Colossians 3:2).

It is sad to have to say that the present-day Church is so earthy that it is of little earthly good. "Sir, we would see Jesus"! (John 12:21).

"The great failure of the Church was in giving up Paul. 'All. . . in Asia' did not give up evangelical truth but they gave up Paul; anything popular you may have, but not Paul. Why? Because Paul is heavenly." -J.B.S.

"It is essential that a believer have a clear understanding of his position before the Father–his place in the risen Lord Jesus Christ. This alone will give true peace of mind, joy and comfort of heart, strength for conflict and power for service. We will never be able to properly understand or fill our place for God on earth if we do not realize our God-given standing before Him in heaven.

"And never forget that our place before the Father is His gift, and a gift worthy of the Giver; not a gift according to the measure of our worth but a gift intended to display the exceeding riches of the grace of the Giver. The greatness of the Giver then is the measure of the blessings that are mine in the Lord Jesus Christ, not what I am or what I deserve."

"When you see and stand on your heavenly ground, you come to rest, just as the Father rests. You need not worry–only keep on that ground by your attitude of heart. If you are going to worry–if you must worry–worry lest you get down on earthly ground, for that is the ground of worry. Abide above! Heavenly things are in safe keeping–in the keeping of One who is 'far above all.'" -T. A-S.

"For ye have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3, ASV.).

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HEART AFFECTION - Miles J Stanford

"If ye, then, be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God" (Colossians 3:1).

Spiritual hunger and thirst are fulfilled in the Lord Jesus, while at the same time they are enlarged for more of Him. This satisfaction overwhelms all lesser longings. Fleshly yearnings are never fulfilled, and every attempt at such satisfaction soon cloys.

"Do we think of, and rejoice in, our blessings more than in the Person in whom we have them? As to even our doctrinal blessings, there is a wonderful charm about them when they are new to us, and they sustain the soul for a certain time; but when the first joy of them passes away, a settling-down process commences. Every new bit of blessing may seem to put a new bit of life into us, but it gradually loses its luster and power, and we become just ordinary Christians–we make very little progress.

"It is as we take the Lord Jesus by faith into the affections of our hearts that we make spiritual progress. It is as He occupies an enlarged place in our affections that we go on. The head may be filled with general theological information without producing one spark of heart-affection for the Lord Jesus, and the soul remains in a state of spiritual emaciation.

"Many have been misled by thinking that by reading the Bible you become like Christ–transformed; but you will find diligent students of the Word, who may never say anything incorrect in doctrine, yet who never seem to grow in grace and walk in spiritual reality.

"All blessings of this dispensation of grace are wrapped up in a Person, and, by means of the Word of God, we make spiritual progress as our hearts learn to find everything in Him–the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us." -C.A.C.

"He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness" (Psalm 107:9).

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HEART AFFECTION - Miles J Stanford

"If ye, then, be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God" (Colossians 3:1).

Spiritual hunger and thirst are fulfilled in the Lord Jesus, while at the same time they are enlarged for more of Him. This satisfaction overwhelms all lesser longings. Fleshly yearnings are never fulfilled, and every attempt at such satisfaction soon cloys.

"Do we think of, and rejoice in, our blessings more than in the Person in whom we have them? As to even our doctrinal blessings, there is a wonderful charm about them when they are new to us, and they sustain the soul for a certain time; but when the first joy of them passes away, a settling-down process commences. Every new bit of blessing may seem to put a new bit of life into us, but it gradually loses its luster and power, and we become just ordinary Christians–we make very little progress.

"It is as we take the Lord Jesus by faith into the affections of our hearts that we make spiritual progress. It is as He occupies an enlarged place in our affections that we go on. The head may be filled with general theological information without producing one spark of heart-affection for the Lord Jesus, and the soul remains in a state of spiritual emaciation.

"Many have been misled by thinking that by reading the Bible you become like Christ–transformed; but you will find diligent students of the Word, who may never say anything incorrect in doctrine, yet who never seem to grow in grace and walk in spiritual reality.

"All blessings of this dispensation of grace are wrapped up in a Person, and, by means of the Word of God, we make spiritual progress as our hearts learn to find everything in Him–the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us." -C.A.C.

"He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness" (Psalm 107:9).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

ACCESSIBILITY - Miles J Stanford

"For we. . . worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:3)

Failure to live the Christian life is due to one's utter inability, but it is all governed by the Father. He teaches us to become proficient in failure (within ourselves), in order to bring us to total reliance upon His Son, who is our Christian life. "For to me to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21).

"It is a wonderful moment for the believer when we by faith occupy our standing in the favor of the Father–when we know that we are received by Him in all the acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We do not then think of ourselves, of our worthiness or unworthiness, at all. We think of the Lord Jesus–His perfections, His suitability to divine favor, His infinite acceptance with the Father–and by faith, we have access into the favor of which He is so worthy." -C.A.C.

"To find that we are objects of consideration to the Lord Jesus is an infinite solace, and it brings Him before our hearts in such a way that we are sustained above the consideration of ourselves."

"There is an infinite difference between self-improvement and growing in the Lord Jesus, nourished and cherished by Him. Instead of being elated by our own improvement, or depressed because we cannot effect it, we are to be occupied with the grace and beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ, in which we are thus made to share."

"We cannot be in the presence of the Father in innocence, for we are guilty; so that we must be there in His righteousness, and that place which used to repel us, now forms me into a likeness of itself. I am not tolerated there (as in myself), I am at home; and where the distance was, there is now nearness and attraction." -J.B.S.

"Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God"(Ephesians 2:19)

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In Spirit-led sharing there is always a principle involved. "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom" (Luke 6:38).

Dig channels for the streams of love, that they may broadly run; for love has overflowing streams, to fill them every one.

But if at any time thou cease these channels to provide, the very fount of love for thee will soon be parched and dried.

For thou must give if thou would'st keep, that good thing from above; ceasing to give, we cease to have–this is the law of love.

"The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you, to the end He may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father" (I Thessalonians 3:12, 13).

Miles J. Stanford; April 1985.

WONDER OF WEAKNESS

"He said to me, My strength is sufficient, for it is only by means of conscious weakness that perfect power is developed" (2 Corinthians 12:9, Wms.).

Our Father does not test our faith so much as He exercises and develops it. In time, He makes us aware of our utter weakness; and, in time, we trust and rest in His all-sufficient strength.

"Until we are carried quite out of our depth, beyond all our own wisdom and resources, we are no more than beginners in the school of faith. Only as everything fails us and we fail ourselves, do we draw upon abiding strength. 'Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee'; not partly in Thee and partly in himself. The devil often makes men strong, strong in themselves to do evil–great conquerors, great acquirers of wealth and power. The Lord on the contrary makes His servant weak, puts him in circumstances that will show him his nothingness, that he may lean upon the strength that is unfailing. It is a long lesson for most of us, but it cannot be passed over until deeply learned. And God Himself thinks no trouble too great, no care too costly to teach us this."

"Faith counts on the Word of God outside and apart from everything and everyone here. When you are in faith your life is centered in the Lord Jesus. The moment the heart is detained by anything here, faith is obstructed. The visible is antagonistic to the invisible. If you walk in the Spirit you will be sensible of this in a moment; the effects and influences of the visible are counter to the invisible. Eve had lost faith when she saw that the tree was good for food, and pleasant to the eyes. If she had kept faith–dependence upon God–she would not have looked, but she had parted with the faith which overcometh the world when she 'saw.' The moment one becomes occupied with the visible one has parted company with faith." -J.B.S.

"Since His power is so glorious, may you be strengthened with strength of every kind, and be prepared for cheerfully enduring all things with patience and longsuffering" (Colossians 1:11, Wey.).

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CROSS PURPOSES - Miles J Stanford

"The Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and guard you from evil" (2 Thessalonians 3:3, R.V.).

When once we see and accept His purpose for our lives to the extent that it becomes our will also, the details of His process cease to matter. "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him" (Job. 13:15).

"The one purpose our Father has in view, in all His ways, is to conform us to the image of His Son. This may explain our perplexities as to the past; it will govern our behavior in the present; it is to be our guide in the future. The chief concern of our Lord is not to instruct us about a multitude of details, not to explain to us the reason for the trials which we are called to pass through. He is working out everything to serve His one supreme aim in manifesting the character of His Son in His saints." -H.F.

"The God-given experiences of the Spirit's working within many a time passes away, and leaves the believer apparently dull and dead. This is only until the double lesson has been fully learned: (1) that a living faith can rejoice in the Living God, even when all feeling and experience appear to contradict the truth (Romans 8:28, 29); and (2) that the Divine life only predominates as the life of the old man is held in the place of death, inoperative (Romans 6:11a). The life of the Lord Jesus is revealed as His death works in us (2 Corinthians 4:11,12), and as in weakness and nothingness we look to Him (2 Corinthians 3:18)." -A.M.

"While our Father is dealing with someone in discipline, when He is applying the Cross in a life, be careful how you sympathize with him. You may be taking sides with him against God. By such sympathy, you may, indeed, draw him away from the work of the Cross."

"For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (2 Corinthians 4:11).

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STAND YOUR GROUND! -Miles J Stanford

"The law is not of faith" (Galatians 3:12).

The law will break you; grace will make you.

"Nothing can be more sure than the steps of one guided by the Spirit of God and the Word of God, and yet nothing more complicated than to have to walk in 'separation' from all that exists around. It is indeed difficult to have to wind one's way through things so perplexing and so complex as the religious systems of our own day. We have to avoid on the one hand organizations formed in imitation of things past (Israel-law), and on the other systems more characterized by anticipation of things future (Kingdom-law). We have to allow that such things were once given by God, and that they will yet again be introduced by Him; while invariably contending that they are positively opposed to His present working by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven." -J.L.H.

"With many Christians, it may be almost thought that the Lord Jesus was but the introduction to Moses. That His death procured the payment of sin's debt, so that the debt being paid, the believer might be in a position to keep the law, and that, accordingly, the law, and not the 'Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,' might be the believer's rule of life." -H.F.W.

"The walk of the believer should ever be the natural result of realized privilege, and not the constrained result of legal vows and resolutions–the proper fruit of a position known and enjoyed by faith, and not the result of one's own efforts to reach a position 'by works of law.' All true believers are a part of the Bride of Christ; hence, they owe Him those affections which become that relation. The relationship is not obtained because of the affections, but the affections flow out of the relationship." -C.H.M.

"For I, through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God" (Galatians 2:19).

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MY FATHER REIGNS! - Miles J Stanford

"Put on the whole armor of God " (Ephesians 6:11a).

My sovereign Father gives me a subservient Satan.

"Our Father has better thoughts for us than a portion here. He is educating us for a blessed and eternal rest, free from evil and all that could cause it, and He is bent on the blessing of His children; and moreover He is bound by His holiness to purge us suitably (though most graciously) for the place He has called us to. How often He lets Satan do this painful work, and try to sift us as Job! But the Father's hand and will are behind it all. He gives His saints up to Satan's hand to a certain point, but only so far as to bring the heart fully to a bearing before Himself." -J.N.D.

"It is a wonderful thing to see the way in which through the overruling power of the Father, the efforts of Satan against His people only bring them out the more distinctly in their own place of blessing."

"We cannot judge God's ways without judging God: we may love Him in His ways, but the moment we judge or question that which He has revealed, we get above God, we make ourselves gods, and we put Him in the place of the creature as subject to us. This brings our souls under the power of everyone that is more clever than ourselves: we are in their hands, and they can do what they please with us.

"Now the devil is more clever than we are. Therefore we ought to keep God ever in His place of God in our souls, lest Satan should make gods of us, and set us judging God Himself. If God be displaced, we get into the place of those who are irresponsible, and as creatures the prey of any more cunning than ourselves." -J.N.D.

"That ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil" (Ephesians 6:11b).

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CHRIST OUR POSITION - Miles J Stanford

"In [this] freedom Christ has made us free–completely liberated us; stand fast then" (Galatians 5:1, Amp.).
We are never going to be able to stand before our Father in prayer and fellowship because we are fit in ourselves. We finally come to see that we are in His presence because of our position in His Son.

"The ground upon which our Father deals with us is grace. Every blessing we receive of Him as His children is undeserved. In all of our spiritual existence we are debtors to the rich, free, sovereign grace of our Father. And what is it we are privileged to enjoy on that ground, when we enter 'into this grace wherein we stand'? We then have a new position, and that position is the glorified Lord Jesus Christ.

"We are not only pardoned, but justified–made righteous; and this is not merely by that which He has done, or by what He has procured or bestows–but in what He is. 'As He is, so are we in this world' (1 John 4:17). The believer must never lose sight of this fundamental truth: that the basis of his fellowship with the Father is not his own personal holiness, or what the Lord Jesus is in him, but his judicial position before the Father, or what the Lord Jesus is for him. He, 'the Lord our righteousness,' is the foundation and source of everything–of walk as well as of position." -E.H.

"Most look to get victory in order to get peace, but it is peace already made by the Lord Jesus' work and risen life that is ours. Conflict we shall find, but we know that the Father is for us, and that makes all the difference." -J.N.D.

"Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us. . . righteousness" (1 Corinthians 1:30).

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SOLITARY SOURCE - Miles J Stanford

"That l may know Him" (Philippians 3:10).

It takes us years of trial and error to finally realize that nothing outside the Lord Jesus Christ can fully satisfy and rejoice our hearts. Joy in Him includes 'the fellowship of His sufferings.' So, 'rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings' (1 Peter 4:13).

"We sometimes have the idea that if we were going on rightly, things would be much smoother here for us. Hardly. There is a discipline to correct us and a discipline to develop us. If you are in a wrong path, as you seek the Lord, you will be corrected; but on the other hand, the more you are set for Him here, the more you will find that there is nothing for you here, though at the same time you are daily finding more in Him. 'We which live are always delivered unto death.' The more you enjoy the Lord Jesus who has been refused here, the more you are practically severed from all here." -J.B.S.

"It is a solemn moment when one who has been going on for years with a flourishing profession wakes up to the fact that his heart is entirely unsatisfied. I believe we have very little idea how natural feelings may be mixed up with what we think is our spiritual joy. Many go on happily because their surroundings are happy, and they have no opposition to speak of–perhaps in a Christian family, or in a happy Christian fellowship. They are carried along by the stream of compatible things around them.

"But anything that outwardly contributes to our joy will sooner or later fail us. Our Father loves us too well to allow us to rest in anything or anyone short of Himself–not even Christian fellowship, or what people call 'the means of grace.' He wants to be so known by us that He becomes the deep eternal spring of satisfaction and joy for our hearts." -C.A.C.

"Give your mind to the things above" (Colossians 3:2).

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HEAVEN, OR EARTH - MIles J Stanford

"Having. . . boldness to enter into the Holiest" (Hebrews 10:19).

We are to draw nigh in faith where we already are in position.

"Instead of the priest coming out to bless, as in Judaism, we are to go in for blessing. There are no barriers now. The Father has removed every hindrance and now it is for me to go in and abide. The teachers of Christendom have practically stitched up the veil which He rent. The rent veil in the Gospels is the Father's coming out, but the rent veil in Hebrews is the believer's going in." -J.B.S.

"Judaism has all the sanction of a divine origin and the splendor of an imposing ritual; yet, for the early Christians, all this was a weight to be laid aside, a useless encumbrance, a positive hindrance. And we have the same hindrance to lay aside today, for Christianity has been perverted into a modified kind of Judaism, in which people are occupied with religious things on earth, and thus hindered from running the race to heaven." -C.A.C.

"Typical of the past, there is a great deal of Judaising in Christianity today. The Ten Commandments have a place assigned to them as the sine qua non, the recognition of which was necessary for true religion while man was in the flesh and under law. To insist on their having that place now tends to bring men into fearful bondage, and to hinder them getting into the full liberty of the children of the Father." -G.V.W.

"Judaism, in its full results, is the manifestation that God is come down to man upon the earth; and this will again be displayed in the millennial days of Israel's blessing. But Christianity is based upon the wondrous fact that man, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, is gone up to the Father into the heavens."

"Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith" (Hebrews 10:22).

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SANS EFFORT - Miles J Stanford

"To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Romans 4:5).

There is no work involved in our receiving the Lord Jesus for life, and there should certainly be no self-effort involved in the manifestation of His life in and through us. The principle is the same, from re-birth to maturity.

"'Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ' (1 Corinthians 15:57). That is grace. That is the test of the real or the counterfeit. Just remember this: any victory over the power of any sin whatsoever that you have to get by working for it is counterfeit. Any victory that you have to get by trying for it is false. If you have to work for your freedom, it is not the real thing, it is not that which the Father offers you in His Son."

"The effortless life is not the will-less life. We use our will to believe, or receive, but not to exert effort in trying to accomplish what only the Father has done. Our hope for freedom from the power of sin is not 'Christ plus my efforts,' but 'Christ plus my receiving.' To receive victory from Him is to believe His Word that solely by grace He is, this moment, freeing us from the dominion of sin. And to believe on Him in this way is to recognize that He is doing for us what we can never do for ourselves." -C.G.T.

"The Father has left us as much dependent on the Lord Jesus' work for our deliverance as for our forgiveness. It is wholly because we died with Him on the Cross, but unto sin and unto the whole legal principle, that sin's power for those in Him is broken."

"Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt" (Romans 4:4).

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UNOBJECTIONABLE OBJECT - Miles J Stanford

"That. . . the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him (Christ)" (Ephesians 1:17).

The object of the Christian life is that we may center in the Object of the Father–His Beloved Son.

"If we go on with the Father, sweet as is the assurance that we belong to Him, yet the uppermost thought will in the long run be Himself. We shall come back to His Person. We shall in our praises weave with them what the Lord Jesus has done, suffered, and won for us; but the primary thought in our hearts is, not what we have gained, however true, but what He has been for us and what He is for us, yes, what He is in Himself." -J.B.S.

"There is usually only occupation with the Lord Jesus for the relief of the conscience, and if so, where does it stop? It stops when the relief is gained. But if He is the object of the heart, you will never be satisfied but in fellowship with Him where He is."

"I know of no arguments, and I am acquainted with no power, that will move the heart to devotedness except the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Himself and His love. It is possible to read books by the score, and to listen to the most faithful and blessed ministry for years on end, and yet never know the Lord Jesus as a present loving Object in heavenly glory. It is nigh impossible to see and know Him there by faith without a resulting intense desire to be wholly devoted to Him here." -C.A.C.

"We have a new Person before us as the Object of our faith and affections; and as we drop ourselves and have the Lord Jesus as our Object, He is formed in us. What has been judicially accomplished at the Cross has its fruition by the Spirit in our souls, and it is by that principle that we grow." -C.A.C.

"For it pleased the Father that in Him (Christ) should all fullness dwell" (Colossians 1:19).

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In the Christian’s life there are two occurrences on which everything hinges: one is a single occurrence which is our regeneration producing our rebirth; the other is an ongoing occurrence involving our “being conformed” (Rom 8:29) which is “being transformed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Cor 3:18).

The primary difficulty in the conforming - transforming process is in our limiting that place of nearness to the Father which He has reserved for us. The agenda of the Adamic nature, which is the same as the Enemies, works against us in attempting to persuade us to accept that its condemnation is to be carried over to us; which condemnation is of the Adamic-life, from which we have been separated, concerning its ruler-ship (Rom 6:6,12, 14; 8:9).

Though the continued presence of the “old man” means that we are still affected (tempted) by it, we are cleared of its guilt and the Father no longer regards us after the life of sin, which He causes us to no longer desire (Gal 5:17; Phil 2:13). How He regards His Son is how He regards us (Eph 1:6) and in this light we need not to allow the presence and persuasions of that condemned nature (Rom 8:3) to place even a scintilla of substance (concerning guilt) between us and the Father, allowing us to "draw near to God" (Jam 4:8).
Bob Hall (NetChaplain)


BIRTH: SAVIOR; GROWTH: SPIRIT -- Miles J Stanford

"Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16).

We receive life by reliance upon the Savior; we grow in that life by reliance upon the Spirit.

"Many think that because of faith they are cleared of everything before God through the Cross, and therefore by faith they are clear of everything in themselves. But that is the error of 'holiness by faith.' The objective (position) is that we are clear before the Father; the subjective (condition) is that we are cleared from ourselves by the growth ministry of the Holy Spirit."

"As you by faith in the positional facts realize that you are in the Father's presence, you will not try to depend upon any sense of His presence. You know His presence because you know that your position in the Christian life is a life of faith in the facts–nothing else. That the Father forces you to live by faith so as to draw you into His presence–not you, by sense, trying to draw Him into yours."

"We are, naturally, suspicious of any offer to make us happy in God. Because our moral sense, our natural conscience, tells us of our having lost all right even to His ordinary blessings. But in the Word of our Father, faith reads our abundant title to be near to Him and happy with Him, though natural conscience and our sense of the fitness of things would have it otherwise. Faith feeds where the moral sensibilities of the natural mind would count it presuming even to tread." -J.G.B.

"The moment we walk by sight we are outside of faith. The Father would never have us outside of faith; hence, even in answering faith, He so answers it that we need it again the next moment, even while we are enjoying the results of it." -J.B.S.

"Faith is. . . the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

Scripture declares that the believer is to “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (Jam 4:7). Resisting the devil or doing anything in our strength will not accomplish the will of God. Only when performed in the Lord’s strength can the Father’s work be accomplished. We are to “be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (Eph 6:10). This involves yielding in non-use of our “own works”, to allow Him to do His work--using us.

What is the difference between resisting the devil and resisting evil? Sin is not an entity, such as an individual who is spirit, but sin is a nature or force; which sinful nature in the believer has been dealt with by Christ, meaning there remains no need to address sin, other than through confession and repenting.

I believe repentance is evidence of a Christian’s true confession (which reveals God’s internal workings; Mat 15:16), which involves putting off sin (Eph 4:22; Col 3:8, 9). To “put off” in this sense does not intend to remove or take off as concerning a garment, but to avoid performing or doing, as in putting off something someone wants you to do. Putting off sin in the believer’s life is done by Christ, through the Spirit using the written Word of God. I believe the process of resisting the devil is best explained in Ephesians 6:10-18 (armor of God) and notice the absence of our strength and the presence of Christ’s.
- NC

RECEPTION AND RESISTANCE - Miles J Stanford

"For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works" (Hebrews 4:10).

Besides the rest of reception, there is also the rest of resistance. Any time there is effort involved in the matter of resisting sin, we can be sure that we are depending to some extent upon the flesh, instead of resting in the finished work of the Cross.

"The question is 'How are we to meet sin?' 'Reckon yourselves dead unto sin.' The moment that you begin to fight with it–no matter how resolutely you may struggle against it–that moment you begin to experience sin as your master. For it is then that we forsake our true position, which is one of freedom from sin as a master.

"Let it be remembered we are to fight 'the good fight of faith,' which consists of resting in our position of freedom, and not in obtaining that position. We are to fight not for it, but from it. He alone has obtained it. It is our Father's free gift. Let us be fully abiding in the One who is Life, and sin when it acts, will find us dead to it." -E.H.

"Calvary is the secret of it all. It is what the Lord Jesus did there that counts, and what He did becomes a growing force in the life of the believer when it is seen, and rested in by faith. This is the starting point from which all godly living must take rise. We shall never know the fact of the Lord Jesus' victory in our lives until we are prepared to count upon His work on the Cross as the source of our personal freedom from the dominion of sin and the old man within. There is no liberty for us that was not first His. The beginning of spiritual growth is faith in that fact."

"Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty with which Christ hath made us free" (Galatians 5:1).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

FROM EXPOUNDER TO EXPONENT - Miles J Stanford

"Now we have received. . . the Spirit who is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God "(1 Corinthians 2:12).

The Holy Spirit ministers the truth of the Word via the mind, that we may share the One who is Truth via the heart.

"If you do not know the Bible as the very Word of God, all is lost! Where have you learned anything from the Lord distinctly, but where every counter influence was inadmissible–in the sacred enclosure of His own Word and Presence, where nothing to qualify what He says can exist?"

"I must not only be an expounder of the truth, but an exponent of it. There should be the sense, I have learned that word for myself. It is not just being able to describe it, or to put it in correct dispensational order; but having that word for myself from the Spirit."

"The mistake with many saints in the present day is that they think because they can describe a truth, that therefore they have learned it. When a truth is really accepted, the conscience demands that there should be accordance with it."

"The Scriptures tell me what the Father gives me, but they do not give it to me. The Spirit applies the Word to me in its divine meaning, and then I possess what Scripture tells me is mine through God's grace. For instance, the Word tells me that if I behold the Lord's glory I shall be transformed. It doesn't transform me, however clearly I may see what it states. It communicates to me a very great thing, but it is the Spirit who makes it experiential to me." -J.B.S.

"Changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. " (2 Corinthians 3.18).

http://www.withchrist.org/MJS/HHDevotional.htm

LIBERATED FROM LAW

"In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature" (Galatians 6:15).

"The law is not our 'rule of life' for the simple reason that it was the Israelite's. The Christian not being a Jew, the law is not for him. 'Holy, just and good' it is, but the Christian's rule of life is 'in Christ. . . a new creature' (Galatians 6:15). The believer's place and rule is to walk as a 'pilgrim and stranger' upon the earth. The law has nothing of this. Had it been fulfilled, it would have made earth morally a paradise; and will, when written upon Israel's heart in millennial days. But strangership on earth and a heavenly walk, it never taught." -F.W.G.

"The Christian is on larger, higher, firmer ground than that on which Israel after the flesh stood. The law is good if a man use it lawfully; and its lawful application is expressly not to form, guide, and govern the walk of the righteous, but to deal with the lawless and disobedient, ungodly and sinful, unholy and profane, and, in short, with whatever is contrary to sound doctrine (1 Timothy 1:9,10)." -F.W.G.

"Any aspect of life or conduct which is undertaken in dependence on the energy and ability of the flesh is, to that extent, purely legal in character, whether it be the whole revealed will of God, the actual written commandments, or the exhortations of grace. Dependence on the arm of flesh is consistent with pure law; dependence on the power of God is demanded under pure grace." -L.S.C.

"Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty with which Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (Galatians 5:1).

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