GOD Knows

Job 23:10  But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
     
Believer! What a glorious assurance!

This way of thine-this, it may be, a crooked, mysterious, tangled way-this way of trial and tears. "He knoweth it."

The furnace seven times heated-He lighted it.

There is an Almighty Guide knowing and directing our footsteps, whether it be to the bitter Marah pool, or to the joy and refreshment of Elim.
     
That way, dark to the Egyptians, has its pillar of cloud and fire for His own Israel.

The furnace is hot; but not only can we trust the hand that kindles it, but we have the assurance that the fires are lighted not to consume, but to refine;

And that when the refining process is completed (no sooner-no later) He brings His people forth as gold.
     
When they think Him least near, He is often nearest.

When my spirit was overwhelmed, then thou knewest my path.
     
Do we know of ONE brighter than the brightest radiance of the visible sun, visiting our chamber with the first waking beam of the morning; an eye of infinite tenderness and compassion following us throughout the day, knowing the way that we take?
     
The world, in its cold vocabulary in the hour of adversity, speaks of "Providence"-"the will of Providence"-"the strokes of Providence." 

PROVIDENCE! what is that?
     
Why dethrone a living, directing God from the sovereignty of His own earth?

Why substitute an inanimate, death-like abstraction, in place of an acting, controlling, personal Jehovah?
     
How it would take the sting from many a goading trial, to see what Job saw (in his hour of aggravated woe, when every earthly hope lay prostrate at his feet)-no hand but the Divine.

He saw that hand behind the gleaming swords of the Sabeans...

He saw it behind the lightning flash...

He saw it giving wings to the careening tempest...

He saw it in the awful silence of his rifled home...
     
The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!
     
Thus seeing God in everything, his faith reached its climax when this once powerful prince of the desert, seated on his bed of ashes, could say, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him."

~John Macduff~

The Night of Weeping~Worldiness

We have seen that God's cure for selfishness is the setting before us of another self to absorb our own in the person of Jesus.

We have now to see that His cure for worldliness is the bringing before us of another world, more glorious than that which He calls on us to forsake.

There is no thorough cure for it but this. It is lack of faith that makes us worldlings; 

And when the believing eye gets fixed on the world to come, then we learn to set our affections on things above.

So long, however, as all here is bright, we are content with them; we allow ourselves to sink down and settle quietly among the things of earth.

But when God unroofs our dwelling, or tears up its foundation by an earthquake, then we are forced to look upward and seek a better and more enduring portion.

Many such shocks, however, are often needed before our souls are broken off from their cleaving to the dust.
 
The opposite of worldliness is heavenly mindedness or spiritual mindedness.

This, the new relish which the Holy Spirit imparts at conversion, in some measure produces. But it is feeble.

It easily gives way. It is not keen enough to withstand much temptation.

God's wish is to impart a keener relish for the things of God and to destroy the relish for the things of time.

This He effects by blighting all objects in which there was earthly sweetness, so that by being deprived of objects to "mind" on earth, it may of necessity be led to "mind" the things above.

He dries up all the "nether springs" of earthly joy, that we may betake ourselves to the "upper springs" which can never fail.
 
There is much worldliness among the saints.

There is worldliness in their motives and actions, worldliness in their domestic life and in their interaction with society...

There is worldliness in the arrangements of their households and in the education of their families;

There is worldliness in their expenditure, so much being laid out for self, so little for God;

There is worldliness in their religious schemes, and movements, and societies; there is worldliness in their reading, and in their conversation;

There is, in short, too much of the spirit of fervent worldliness about their whole deportment, and little of calm, happy superiority to the things of earth.

They are fretted, disturbed, bustled just like the world.

They grudge labor, or fatigue, or expense, or annoyance in the cause of Christ, or in serving their fellow-men.

They have much of earth, little of Heaven about them.

They are not largehearted, openhanded- willing to spend and be spent, unmoved and unruffled, as those whose eye is ever set on the incorruptible inheritance on which they so soon shall enter.

They are low and unaspiring in the things of God.
 
Perhaps there are few things against which we require to be more warned than against this spirit of worldliness.

The Church is very prone to forget her pilgrim character in this present evil world and to live as a citizen of earth.

Her dignity as the eternally chosen of the Father is lost sight of; her hope as the inheritor of the glory and the kingdom of the Son is obscured.

And oh, how much of sorrow she is preparing for herself by thus losing sight of her calling!

What desolation may be even now hovering over the tabernacle of many a saint, because they will not come out and be separate, because they refuse to be "strangers on the earth as all their fathers were."

Sad it is, indeed, that we should need affliction to teach us this!
 
Why should we whose home and treasure are above, ever again seek our home or our treasure here?

Why should we stoop from our heavenly elevation to mingle again with the company which we have forsaken?

Have we repented of our choice? 

Are we ashamed of our pilgrim staff and our pilgrim road? Surely not.

Oh, if to be a stranger on earth is to be divided from sin and sinful appetites, from the seducing vanities and worthless mockeries of the world, from the fascinating beauty and perilous splendor of this decaying scene...

If to be a stranger on earth is to be a friend of God, a member of the heavenly household, an expectant of the kingdom, an heir apparent of the crown of glory- who would not be a stranger here?
 
What higher honor would we seek than to share the homelessness of Jesus, the homelessness of the Church from the beginning?

Why should we seek to enter into nearer fellowship and dearer relationship with such a world as this?

If we knew of no fairer heritage, we might not be wondered at for lusting after our forsaken pleasures.

But we have the pleasures that are at God's right hand forever, and what are earth's allurements to us?

What to us are the sights and sounds of earth, who "shall see the king in his beauty," and hear His voice, into whose lips grace is poured?

What to us is the green fertility of earth, who shall enter into the possession of the new earth, when "the winter is past, the rain over and gone"?

What to us is the gay glory of a city's wealth and pomp, who shall be made citizens of the New Jerusalem, where dwells the glory of God and of the Lamb, whose foundations are of precious stones, whose walls are of jasper, whose gates are of pearl, whose streets and pavements are of transparent gold?
 
Let us, then, "pass the time of our sojourning here in fear."

Let our loins be girt about and our lamps burning, and let us be as men ready to go forth to meet our returning Lord.

If we watch not, if we reject the warning, our chastisement will be sharp and sore.
 
The present seems a time of peculiar warning to the saints. Many are lying under the rebukes of the Lord.

Judgment has begun at the house of God. God is dealing very closely and very solemnly with His own.

On many a saint at this moment is His rod lying heavily, for He would sincerely warn and arouse them before the evil day arrive.

He is dealing with them as He dealt with Lot on the night before the desolation of Sodom.

Let the saints, then, be warned.

Let them be zealous and repent and do their first works.

Come out, be separate, touch not the unclean thing!

Put off the works of darkness; put on the armor of light. 

He is calling on them to get up to a higher level in the spiritual life, to be done with wavering, indecision, and compromise.

He is calling on them to consider the apostle and High Priest of their profession and walk in His steps.

He is calling on them to look at the cloud of witnesses, and lay aside every weight, especially that sin (of unbelief) which does so easily beset them, and to run with patience the race set before them- "looking unto Jesus."
 
Church of the living God! Be warned. Please not yourself, even as Jesus pleased not Himself.

Live for Him, not for yourself, for Him, not for the world.

Walk worthy of your name and calling, worthy of Him who bought you as His bride, worthy of your everlasting inheritance.
 
Up, too, and warn the world! The chastisements that are falling so thickly on you are forerunners of the fiery shower that is preparing for the earth.

Up, then, and warn them- urge and entreat them to flee from gathering wrath.

They have no time to lose, neither have you.

The last storm is on the wing. Its dark skirts are already visible in the heavens.

Judgment has begun at the house of God, and if so, what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God!

Horatius Bonar 

Sin Of Pride

Proverbs 16:18  Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall . 

Pro 13:10  Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.                                                                              

Thankful For The Thorns

2Co 12:10  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Here is the secret of Divine all-sufficiency, to come to the end of everything in ourselves and in our circumstances. 

When we reach this place, we will stop asking for sympathy because of our hard situation or bad treatment, for we will recognize these things as the very conditions of our blessing, and we will turn from them to God and find in them a claim upon Him.

~A. B. Simpson~

George Matheson, the well-known blind preacher of Scotland, who recently went to be with the Lord, said: "My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorn.

I have thanked Thee a thousand times for my roses, but not once for my thorn.

I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross; but I have never thought of my cross as itself a present glory.

Teach me the glory of my cross; teach me the value of my thorn. 

Show me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain.

Show me that my tears have made my rainbows.

Alas for him who never sees The stars shine through the cypress trees.

Spiritual Ascendancy

In this present hour the sovereignty and authority of Jesus Christ is not political on this earth - not manifest among men - "My kingdom is not of this world," but His sovereignty is a spiritual sovereignty.

He is secretly governing and there is a mighty impact.

To come into the heavenlies means you are to have a spiritual and moral ascendancy. 

What is the way out with God? Out of difficulty, out of suffering? It is the way through. 

Here you are in the midst of some suffering, difficulty, adversity. You cry to the Lord to deliver you and the Lord does not do it. Then you get into all kinds of mental fogs.

Why doesn't the Lord deliver you out? Because He is trying to train you to rule and your way of deliverance is by your spirit taking ascendancy over it.

You say, "Lord, I take government over this thing to make it serve Your end and I refuse to be under it in spirit."

When you have taken that position you have come out of it - God comes in. 

We want to be delivered from our troubles and the Lord wants us to take ascendancy over them in Him.

That is what Paul did. His thorn in the flesh was just as painful to him in some senses but he was on top of it - it was serving him and he was not a prey to it.

That is the rule of the heavens. It works - I have proved it again and again.

The trouble is that sometimes we are so silly and foolish and blindly go on.

We yield to it or the enemy blinds us concerning it and then it suddenly breaks upon us that we should not be under it and say, "In His Name I take ascendancy over this thing" - we come out by the heavens.

The Lord would show us first of all that the heavens do rule and then bring us into that elevated place with Himself spiritually and governmentally, where the gates of Hell shall not prevail against us, and lead on to the great position where all authority on earth and in heaven is in His hands.

The purpose of God now is the securing of an administrative instrument and the training of that instrument to govern.

People wonder why the Lord does not wipe the devil out of the universe, why He does not stop suffering and affliction, for the Word tells us that our Lord Jesus was "manifested to destroy the works of the devil."

All this has been permitted in order to bring the Church individually and corporately to the place of spiritual ascendancy over trial.

God intended to put us into some higher position and that is our rightful position in Christ where the heavens do rule. 

You are only down and out and under when your spirit is under. 

God would have us take ascendancy over conditions that are. Revelation is bound up with this very thing.

It is wonderful how you go dragging on, hardly holding your ground and then suddenly the Lord gives you a flash - why don't you take your position in Christ?

The great fact is that sovereignty is in the heavenly position and heavenly position is secured for us now in the Lord Jesus for we have been made to sit in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.

Sovereignty, government, ascendancy, elevation - all in our Lord Jesus and in that position we should be governors over things - spiritual governors. 

Not the volume of voice or the phraseology, not the clenching of the fist.

It is your spirit being in a position where you can perhaps very quietly and deeply but strongly in your spirit say, "No, I refuse that in the Name of the Sovereign Lord."

We weaken the forces of darkness by a quiet definite position in Christ. Not a mental thing but spiritual, because the heavens represent that which is spiritual.

~T. Austin Sparks~

When Thou Passest Through The Waters, I Will Be With Thee

Isa 43:2  When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

How many of the dear saints of God, when they have been brought into tribulation and sorrow, have found the fulfillment of this most gracious promise!

And is there not one of these waters through which all must go-that deep and rapid Jordan which every one must pass through?

How dark and gloomy those waters have appeared to the eyes of many a child of God, in whom is continually fulfilled the experience of the words, "Who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."

But how often have these waters only been terrible in prospect, in anticipation.

How different has been the reality.

When he comes down to the river's bank and his feet dip in these waters, and it appears as though they would rise higher and higher, the Lord suddenly appears in his power and presence, and then the water sinks. 

He speaks a word of peace to his soul upon a dying bed...reveals Christ in his love and grace and blood...

Removes those doubts, fears, and disturbing thoughts which have perplexed him for years, and brings into his heart a holy calm, a sweet peace, assuring him that all is well with him, both for time and eternity.

Has he not then the fulfilment of the promise, "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee?"

~J. C. Philpot~

The Best Course To Prevent Falling Into The Pit!

It is our wisest and our safest course to stand at the farthest distance from sin; 

Not to go near the house of the harlot, but to fly from all appearance of evil.

Keep to a path far from her...do not go near the door of her house!"

Pro 5:8  Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: 

The best course to prevent falling into the pit...is to keep at the greatest distance from the pit. 

He who will be so bold as to attempt to dance upon the brink of the pit-may find by woeful experience, that it is a righteous thing with God that he should fall into the pit!

Sin is a plague, yes, the greatest and most infectious plague in the world; and yet, ah! how few are there that tremble at it, that keep at a distance from it!

~Thomas Brooks~



  

Obstinate Faith

Joshua 3:13  And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon an heap.  

Brave Levites! Who can help admiring them, to carry the Ark right into the stream; for the waters were not divided till their feet dipped in the water (ver. 15). 

God had not promised aught else. God honors faith. "Obstinate faith," that the PROMISE sees and "looks to that alone." 

You can fancy how the people would watch these holy men march on, and some of the bystanders would be saying, "You would not catch me running that risk!

Why, man, the ark will be carried away! Not so; "the priests stood firm on dry ground."

We must not overlook the fact that faith on our part helps God to carry out His plans. "Come up to the help of the Lord."

The Ark had staves for the shoulders. Even the Ark did not move of itself; it was carried. 

When God is the architect, men are the masons and laborers.

Faith assists God. It can stop the mouth of lions and quench the violence of fire. It yet honors God, and God honors it. 

Oh, for this faith that will go on, leaving God to fulfill His promise when He sees fit!

Fellow Levites, let us shoulder our load, and do not let us look as if we were carrying God's coffin. It is the Ark of the living God!

Sing as you march towards the flood!

~Thomas Champness~

One of the special marks of the Holy Ghost in the Apostolic Church was the spirit of boldness.

One of the most essential qualities of the faith that is to attempt great things for God, and expect great things from God, is holy audacity.

Where we are dealing with a supernatural Being, and taking from Him things that are humanly impossible, it is easier to take much than little;

It is easier to stand in a place of audacious trust than in a place of cautious, timid clinging to the shore.

Like wise seamen in the life of faith, let us launch out into the deep, and find that all things are possible with God, and all things are possible unto him that believeth.

Let us, today, attempt great things for God; take His faith and believe for them and His strength to accomplish them. 

~Days of Heaven upon Earth~