The Lord’s Dealings Are Based On Our Pride

                                                                                 

On the one side, it is terribly true... 

Psa 138:6  Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.

It all sprang out of that proud heart that lifted itself up and said... 

Isa 14:13  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 

Isa 14:14  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

With that I, all the trouble began, and that one bit his poison into the race. 

The poison of the human race is pride, and it has come all the way down.

It is sometimes almost untraceable: 

We are not able always to trace it out in all its forms...

There are, of course, the obviously, manifestly proud, the ambitious, the assertive, the self-important, the self-sufficient. 

It is an ugly thing. 

A lot of our murmuring is pride...

A lot of tears are pride which we think is humility...

A lot of our criticism of other people springs from pride...

Pride is at the root. 

Very much of our poor, miserable tone is, after all, pride. 

Oh, how subtle and serpentine a thing this is!

It is there. 

So the Lord has to stand back.

On the other hand, look at humility...

To this man will I look – that is the beginning, the Lord even looking in anyone’s direction –“even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit".

And He dwells with them.

Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

Isa 57:15  For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. 

Psa 25:9  The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.

Mat 5:5  Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 

It is like that all the way through; vindication is on that basis.  

Num 12:3  (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)

And you know when that was said at the time when his position was disputed, and God appeared at the entrance of the tabernacle and answered the challenge on the ground of the meekness of His servant. 

God stands by and vindicates the meek.

I say the whole Bible is founded on this issue. 

What a vital matter this is!

Is not the Lord justified in taking any steps to clear up that situation - breaking, emptying, humbling, withholding, deferring, delaying...

In any way bringing us to nought, to a place of utter dependence, where there is nothing we can rely upon at all but the Lord Himself? 

Is He justified?

It is a tremendous process.

It is a very real, very devastating work...

And the very fact that we suffer so much shows how deep and real it is.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Is God In What You Are Doing?

Beloved, the principle of Life in your spirit is to be the guiding principle of all your service in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I do not mean Life in your surroundings. 

The Lord may take you to a place where death reigns, but if death reigns in you, you may as well give up the whole thing at once. 

You may be there, and the Life of God may be in you to meet that situation to triumph over it; 

But mark you, if you begin to touch what you call pieces of work for God and there is no Life in your spirit, the thing is dead in your spirit; you have no right there until you get in your spirit the Life of God relative to that thing. 

Don’t touch it, or you will be found in dead works, trying to do something where there is no vital principle at all.

A lot of people hold on and continue in certain realms, certain spheres, certain companies, certain connections...

And they are there merely from the standpoint of natural reasoning and argument, sentimentality, tradition, or somehow thinking that by staying in, something is going to be done...

While in their spirit they know the thing is dead, and they have no Life there.
 
Oh, that God’s people had discernment, spiritual discernment! 

The one cry in our spirit is that His people might be more discerning...to be able to discern in their spirit where Life is and where death is. 

We have got to get on to the thing that God is doing, for only in this can we have the witness of Life that it is the thing of God, and that we shall get through. 

In order that He might be able to consummate His purpose, gather up His plan and bring it to a mighty, victorious issue in the coming of the Lord, our need is to have Life more abundant… and the spiritual discernment by Life, to know where Life is and where death is.

You may be doing what you call the work of God and have death in your Spirit; and that very doing of what you call the work of God because there is death in your spirit is antagonistic to the purpose of God. 

You may have Life in your Spirit and death all around, but the fact that you have the witness of Life is both the key and the assurance that something is to be accomplished.
 
I believe, beloved, that we dare not do a thing unless we have definite witness in our spirit that it is the thing of God to be done through us…. 

Is God in this?

Is God in that?

Has God undertaken it?

The answer to that question in your spirit will not be an audible voice...

It must ever be the liberty and the freedom and the uprising of His Life in you that gives you a clear way through in your spirit.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Complete Safety

Deu 33:12  And of Benjamin he said, The beloved of the LORD shall dwell in safety by him; and the LORD shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders.

Yes, there is no safety like that which comes of dwelling near to God.

For His best beloved the LORD can find no surer or safer place.

O LORD, let me always abide under Thy shadow, close to Thy wounded side. 

Nearer and nearer would I come to Thee, my LORD; and when once specially near Thee, I would abide there forever. 

What a covering is that which the LORD gives to His chosen!

Not a fair roof shall cover him, nor a bomb-proof casement, nor even an angel's wing, but Jehovah Himself. 

Nothing can come at us when we are thus covered. 

This covering the LORD will grant us all the day long, however long the day.

LORD, let me abide this day consciously beneath this canopy of love, this pavilion of sovereign power. 

Does the third clause mean that the LORD in His temple would dwell among the mountains of Benjamin or that the LORD would be where Benjamin's burden should be placed, or does it mean that we are borne upon the shoulders of the Eternal?

In any case, the LORD is the support and strength of His saints. 

LORD, let me ever enjoy Thy help, and then my arms will be sufficient for me. 

~Charles Spurgeon~

The Safest Shelter

Isa 32:2  And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

Who this Man is we all know. 

Who could He be but the Second Man, the LORD from heaven, the man of sorrows, the Son of Man? 

What a hiding place He has been to His people! 

He bears the full force of the wind Himself, and so He shelters those who hide themselves in Him. 

We have thus escaped the wrath of God, and we shall thus escape the anger of men, the cares of this life, and the dread of death. 

Why do we stand in the wind when we may so readily and so surely get out of it by hiding behind our LORD? 

Let us this day run to Him and be at peace. 

Often the common wind of trouble rises in its force and becomes a tempest, sweeping everything before it.

Things which looked firm and stable rock in the blast, and many and great are the falls among our carnal confidences. 

Our LORD Jesus, the glorious man, is a covert which is never blown down.

In Him we mark the tempest sweeping by, but we ourselves rest in delightful serenity.

This day let us just stow ourselves away in our hiding place and sit and sing under the protection of our Covert. 

Blessed Jesus! Blessed Jesus! How we love Thee!

Well we may, for Thou art to us a shelter in the time of storm.

~Charles Spurgeon~

The Providences Of God Are Often Dark And Mysterious!

Psalm 77:19  Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.

The Providences of God are often dark and mysterious. 

It is not easy to ascertain why the Lord acts as He does or to find out the precise object which He has in view. 

He carries on His work according to His eternal and pre-ordained plan...and He accomplishes His purposes often by the most unlikely means. 

He works all things after the counsel of His own will and He works leisurely, having no cause to hurry. 

We are naturally hasty, and want to know what God means at once. 

But He says, "Be still. Wait. Watch. Let patience have her perfect work."

We may not be able to account for our trials, troubles, losses, and crosses but all will be made plain by-and-by. 

John 13:7  Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.

We now know in part but we shall soon know even as also we are known.

And until then, we may well bepatient-assured that God is acting wisely, lovingly, and is consulting our good in all that He does.

O wonder-working God, Your dealings with us are often dark, and difficult to be understood! 

Give us faith to believe Your promises when we cannot understand Your Providences. 

Let us be assured of Your love to us when we cannot ascertain the design of Your dealings with us. 

Preserve us from a repining, complaining, and unbelieving spirit and grant us grace that we may rest satisfied that You are acting rightly. 

May we learn, in whatever state we are therewith to be content. 

With patience may we do and suffer 

Your will at present...being fully assured that all will be explained and opened up to us at length. 

O to be enabled to rest on Your covenant love, to trust Your faithful promises, and to commit all of our ways unto You!

Psa 25:10  All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

~James Smith~

Is Your Life A Dwelling Place For God?

If we are really to be the dwelling place of God, then we are to be nothing in ourselves.

Do not look for reputation...

Do not try to make an impression...

Do not stand on your own dignity...

Do not do any of those things in any way whatever which will give you prominence with people and make them think something of you.

It will not pass with the Lord.

So let us get rid of it, every bit of it, and recognize what we are in God’s sight.

He is going to bring that about...

So if we try to make people think we are other than we are in order to get an advantage, we are contradicting the principle of the house of God.

All self-importance must go, and all desire for recognition.

All that sort of thing has to be wiped out.

The house of God is not founded on that.

God will not have it.

Man is abased, and all the other is the devil’s work.

It comes from him in whose heart pride was found.

When young men and women have given up all the prospects of this world and laid their treasures in the dust and gone forth at the command of the Lord

They have laid everything in ashes so far as this world’s hopes and prospects are concerned.

The Church has been built in that way.

Even when it is not like that in great acts of life’s vocation, it is a daily thing...

A letting go of our own interests in obedience to the Lord, in faith in the Lord.

It is thus the building goes on.

I could work that down to very fine points and show how often the house of God is delayed and arrested in its progress by the withholding of something on which the Lord has laid his finger and said ‘I want that’.

However there is the general principle, the triumph of faith through obedience when all is in the dust.

Abraham believed God, and that great triumph provided God with the site for His temple, the great example and type of that spiritual house which is central to the fulfillment of all His purposes.

God dwells in that sort of thing.

But that central thing has to go through the depths.

That which is the very heart of God’s presence to which He commits Himself, has to know stripping more than others.
 
This involves a deep work where faith is brought to perfection through very deep testing.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Follow To Know

Not all at once, but by degrees shall we attain to holy knowledge, and our business is to persevere and learn by little and little. 

We need not despair, though our progress may be slow, for we shall yet know. 

The LORD, who has become our Teacher, will not give us up, however slow of understanding we may be...

For it is not for His honor that any degree of human folly should baffle His skill. 

The LORD delights to make the simple wise. 

Our duty is to keep to our main topic and follow on to know, not this peculiar doctrine nor that, but Jehovah Himself. 

To know Father, Son, and Spirit, the Triune God, this is life eternal...

Let us keep to this, for in this way we shall gain complete instruction.

By following on to know the LORD, we learn healing after being torn, binding up after smiting, and life after death. 

Experience has its perfect work when the heart follows the trackway of the Almighty LORD. 

My soul, keep thou close to Jesus, follow on to know God in Jesus, and so shalt thou come to the knowledge of Christ, which is the most excellent of all the sciences. 

The Holy Ghost will lead thee into all truth.

Is not this His gracious promise? 

Rely upon Him to fulfill it.

~Charles Spurgeon~