OUR POTTER

Isa 64:8  But now, O LORD, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou our Potter; and we all are the work of Thy hand. 

Have you  understood the meaning of the force that presses in upon your life today? Has it seemed only pain, only wrong and deep injustice? Back of all that seems to be, the POTTER stands, with an ideal so lofty that our highest imagination has not fully grasped it. A beautiful, transformed life, fit to sit with Him upon His throne, is in the POTTER'S mind, and He is shaping you through that which seemed a painful experience. Shall we not learn to say today. "I am the clay, and Thou The POTTER. Shape me as you will, Dear LORD Amen.

IMPOSSIBLE With Men But POSSIBLE With GOD

Luk 18:27  And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.  

All hangs upon this one thing (as simple as it may seem) that if Christ is present (which means nothing else than that God is present) anything is possible at any moment. Are you waiting for some day when things will be better? It is not a matter of time at all, it is a matter of Him. He says, "I am time and eternity all in a moment, and you need not accept anything in the matter of time; you accept Me, and you may be well-nigh dead in the morning and be very much alive before the day is over. 'I am the resurrection and the life.'" Mary said, “I know that He will rise again in the last day.” For her resurrection was a matter of time. Oh no. Resurrection was right there....

As long as it takes to break a loaf you have gone from seed-time to harvest. "'Do you not say, There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest?' (John 4:35). I am here, and there can be harvest at any moment when I am here." It is not a matter of time, of circumstance. We are dealing with God, and He is not bound by anything that is known to our human life at all. Eternity dwells in any moment when He is present. All things are bound up with any moment when He is present. The centurion said, "Just say the word and my servant will be healed." "You need not come. Distance does not matter, time does not matter, just speak the word and it will be done." The Lord said, "I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel." The word was uttered, and when the enquiry was made as to when it happened it was found to synchronize with the moment when He spoke.

He takes everything into His hands, and says "My hour..." and when that comes, there is no postponement. Oh, that we should lay hold of that more, live on that, never surrender to conditions, never surrender to the inevitable from the standpoint of the human, but say, "We have Him; He is our future, He is our circumstance." Anything can be at any moment with the Lord present.

By T. Austin-Sparks

I Can Do ALL Things Through CHRIST

April 30

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Php 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

What is abiding? Abiding in Christ, as we have often said, is the opposite of abiding in ourselves.

To abide in ourselves is simply to try to do this living, and this working for the Lord, of ourselves; asking the Lord to help us to do it, instead of recognizing that a Life wholly pleasing to God has been lived and that faith appropriates that accomplishment in Christ.

Abiding in Christ is simply doing everything, meeting everything as out from Christ. It is a sure ground. There is no need for question and reasoning: "Can it be done? Can I do it?" Or, "I am not sure about it." It is done.

The Lord Jesus has met everything that you or I will meet, and in all things has done what is needful. That is available to faith, and faith says, "Well, in myself the thing would be absurd, and to attempt the thing would be ridiculous; as to myself it would be folly to contemplate it. But it can be done, because it is done; I can meet this demand, and I can stand up to that one; I can go through with this, and I can do that – 'I can do all things ("all" is a big word) through Christ, which strengtheneth me.'" It is what Christ is as our secret source of strength, of sustenance, of nourishment.

This is a school, and we learn this lesson in a progressive way. He learned, and we learn, though in our case there is a difference to be noted. We are learning to draw upon the fullness which He consummated, working out from a fullness as we press onward to the goal.

We are learning how to come back to a fullness, He moved on toward a fullness. The Cross for Him was the end, for us it is the beginning.

We have to learn how to come back to His fullness and we learn progressively, step by step, like little children, first of all learning to walk and to talk.

Like them we are confronted with things which we have never done or even attempted before, things which are all new and strange; a new world, sometimes a very terrible world.

The contemplation of taking his first step to a little child is a most terrifying proposition. You and I are brought into this realm of faith, wherein the simplest thing at the beginning, the taking of a first step, is sometimes fraught with horror for us.

But there are arms stretched out, and those arms now represent for us the accomplishment of what is required of us, the thing is done. The strength is there, available for the matter in hand, a strength which has been proved.

Recognizing those arms and trusting, taking the step, we learn to walk by Christ, to live by Christ; and the next time we shall be able to go a bit further. Each time capacity is being enlarged and we are coming to a fuller measure of maturity.

~T. Austin Sparks~

Because You KNOW Your GOD

                                                                    

Dan 11:32  And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.

 

How much do you depend upon conferences and teachers to keep you going? Must you attend meetings just because you feel that the last lot you got has been used up and you must get a fresh supply?

Or have you been emancipated from all human props and put into a place of glorious independence, because you KNOW YOUR GOD? 

It doesn't matter if you are plunged into the middle of the Sahara, you know your God and can stand independently of all natural helps – this thing has become YOU!

That is the kind of knowledge that means power. That is the kind of experience which overcomes the world. That is the kind of thing that makes all the other systems go down, and you rise triumphantly above them.

That was the secret of the apostolic church. Let kings do what they like, let the people rage – it goes on, and it is the Roman Empire that goes to pieces before this thing, and not this thing that goes down before the Roman Empire.

It is an independent personal knowledge of God, resultant from an inward birth, that lives. Not only an objective truth, but a subjective power, and it is a great day when the slightest fragment of known truth becomes a vital personal experience in its working ability. That is what we want. First-hand knowledge, not second-hand truth.

May God work this into our very beings until it becomes us. Take it in fragments if you like, and ask the Lord to work it out in you and make it live in you.

~T. Austin Sparks~

YOU REALLY DON'T WANT TO CHANGE

This Song "Don't Wanna Change" Is A Warning To Repent And Turn. You Know... People May Think They Are Hiding Their Sin But The Eyes Of God See And Hear All. This Song Was Written By Johnny Whirlwind And Most Of His Songs Kinda Hit Ya Like A Whirlwind .But Isn't It Better To Have The Straight Talk Truth And Have Change Rather Than Sugar Coat Everything And Make People Comfortable In Their Sin? Where Is The Change Then? Do We Really Care If People Go To Hell Or Do We Care More About Ourselves And What People Are Gonna Think? Remember We Will All Give Account One Day Of What We Do In This Life. Lets Cry Out For The Boldness Of The Lion Of Judah, He Has Not Given Us The Spirit Of Fear--And That Word Means Timidity.

Don't Be Deceived A Hypocrite A Faker is Not gonna enter into the Kingdom Of God.....Better Get The Real Deal And NOW Before It is TOO LATE!!!

RISE UP AND WALK

                            

Act 3:6  Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. 

 

The members of the new heavenly Israel are people who have been delivered from self-interest into God's interest, who have been put on their spiritual feet by Jesus Christ and are walking in strength in the way of the Lord.

Do you not think it is a very significant thing that the first miracle after the Day of Pentecost was the raising of an impotent man at the gate of the temple in Jerusalem?

These are not just pretty stories put together to make an interesting book. God knows what He is doing, and when He makes the first miracle of the Christian era the raising of an impotent cripple, He is saying that the people of this new Israel are people who have been delivered from this impotence and put on their feet spiritually.

There are a lot of Christian cripples about! They cannot get on their own feet, nor can other people put them there. You try to pick them up! They may take a step or two, and then down they go again.

There are many like that, and you can spend your life trying to get them up on their feet. What is it that is eating the very life out of them? What is it that is making them such helpless cripples that they cannot walk? It is self-centeredness. Make no mistake about it, it is self in some form. It is self that wants to be taken notice of. It is self in the form of pride.

This poor man was delivered because he knew his own helplessness and he believed what Jesus said. He believed on to Jesus Christ, which means that he believed out of himself.

Yes, that is the secret – that we shall turn from our miserable selves and cease to be occupied with them, saying once and for all: "I am done with you, wretched self. I throw myself on to Jesus Christ. I take the one great step of committal." Jesus never lets such a person down.

~T.Austin Sparks~

Weakness And The POWER Of GOD

2Co 13:4  For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. 

One of the most damaging things in the realm of God's work, a thing which eventually leads to shame and confusion and much sorrow, is Natural Soul Force projected by strong-willed, determined, aggressive Christians who have not come to a spiritual state where they are able to discriminate between stubborn indomitableness, personal determination and resolution, and which is altogether another thing: spiritual grace in endurance, perseverance, and Divine in-strengthening. The Lord has often to break the former to make place for the latter.

Do not talk about Paul's wonderful will to go through. Let Paul talk to you about the Lord's wonderful grace to continue.

Whenever a man or a woman really recognizing the truth that Calvary means the end of "I" commits himself or herself to the Lord to work it out, the flame of the sword will come round to the point where that "flesh" would seek to enter into the realm where the first Adam no longer has any standing.

The features of a personal strength of will are hardness, coldness, death, resentment of interference, suspicion of rivals, intolerance of obstructers, detachment, independence, secretiveness, heat, etc. 

While spiritual strength is always marked by love, warmth, life, fellowship, openness, confidence, and trust in the Lord.... At the end, in the Revelation, the dragon, the whole power of Satan is overthrown by the Lamb. 

The Lamb is the synonym for weakness and yieldingness. If the weakness of God can do this mighty destruction, what can His strength not do? 

Paul says of Christ that "He was crucified through weakness," and, he adds, "we also are weak with Him." Yes, but he also says, "by the Cross He triumphed." Triumphed through weakness!

~T. Austin Sparks~

 

You Can Still Have Peace

In The Midst Of ANY Storm We Can Still Have The Peace Of 
The LORD Just Keep Your Eyes On JESUS CHRIST!

Isa 26:3  Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

Isa 32:17  And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.
 
Isa 32:18  And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places; 

REPENTANCE

Repentance is defined by the Scripture as a change of mind, turning away from the intention and purpose of pleasing self and choosing to please God. The seed of all righteousness and holiness is in repentance. Perhaps a man's purpose - his aim and direction~is~ to please himself. But when he repents he must make an about-face. This is a complete turnabout.

From that moment on, the intention of this man is to please and glorify God~to satisfy only Him. The salvation of which Jesus speaks is not our being satisfied with Him, rather it is His being satisfied with us. 

Repentance means making a 180-degree turn. It means changing your mindset from~I'm going to do what I want to do~to~Lord,I'm going to please You as long as I live.' It is a change of mind, a change of intention, a change of purpose, a change of practice.

So we see that repentance has to be complete and not partial. Repentance is a committal of the will to the principle and practice of pleasing God in everything. That means, from today on, the Lord is going to be King and Boss and Sovereign. You do as He tells you. Because~out of love, He deserves to be obeyed and served. We need to understand this ourselves in order to proclaim it to others. 

This is the nature of repentance. It is a change of mind~a change of intention~a change of purpose. It is not merely an accepting of Christ. 

~Paris Reidhead

Crucified With Christ

Oh Praise The Lord Forever Saints of The Most High God! 

LISTEN CLOSE!

Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

DON'T GET IN THE WAY!!!

 

 DON'T GET IN THE WAY OF GOD'S PURPOSES!!!

Lo I Am With You Always

                                                       
Trials and hairbreadth escapes only strengthened my faith and nerved me for more to follow; and they trod swiftly enough upon each other's heels. 

Without that abiding consciousness of the presence and power of my Lord and Saviour, nothing in the world could have preserved me from losing my reason and perishing miserably. 

His words Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end became to me so real that it would not have startled me to behold Him, as Stephen did, gazing down upon the scene. It is the sober truth that I had my nearest and most intimate glimpses of the presence of my Lord in those dread moments when musket, club or spear was being levelled at my life.

This is strength; this is peace; to feel, in entering on every day, that all its duties and trials have been committed to the Lord Jesus ~ that, come what may, He will use us for His own glory and our real good!

Nothing so clears the vision and lifts up the life, as a decision to move forward in what you know to be entirely the will of the Lord.

~John Paton~

Stand Fast In The LIBERTY

                              

Gal 5:1  Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. 

 

There is another word, which just means that which has escaped from slavery and is breathing free air. That is a fine picture, a fine portrait for Overcomers–that which has escaped from slavery and is breathing free air. I dare not stay to interpret that.

Some of us, even in our Christian lives and histories, know what it is to escape from slavery. Oh, the old bondage of the Christian system and order, expectation and demand, all the old rota and legality! – to be free of it all! Not only to be raised with Christ, but to have the grave clothes taken off and to be breathing the free air of the spiritually emancipated! That is what this word calls a "remnant," and that is not something extra to Christianity. It is exactly what you find at the beginning with the Church.

The Lord had cried in the midst of a burdened, tyrannized, religious nation – "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 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. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light" (Matt. 11:28-30). What is the old yoke, the old burden, which has harassed and worn these people so that they are weary to death, drawing out His compassionate appeal – Come unto Me, and I will give you rest"?

It is the old yoke and burden of legalistic religion, 'thou shalt' and thou shalt not: 'you must' and 'you must not' – the whole system built up like that; a great burden. "They bind heavy burdens," He said, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with their finger (Matt. 23:4). And this word for "

remnant means such as have escaped slavery and are breathing the free air.

You find them in the beginning of the book of the Acts. Overcomers are those who go back to the beginning in experience. They do not take up something further which is deeper teaching or fuller light. It is the primal freshness and fullness of Christ that Overcomers represent  unfortunately, in contrast to the general situation.

 
T. Austin-Sparks

The WAY Of Our RELEASE

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Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame. (Hebrews 12:2)

The passion of the Cross is the way of our release, and if you consider your own spiritual experience, those of you who have any experience of a walk with God, you know quite well that it has been through times of deep and acute suffering that you have found fresh releases; fresh releases in your spiritual life. Is it not true?

Yes, we pass into a time of excruciating spiritual and soul suffering. We do not know what the Lord is doing, what He means by this, what He is after, but we know the features of our experience and know what it is that we are suffering, and it goes on.

We, of course, ask the Lord to stop it, to bring it to a quick end, to deliver us from it. He takes no notice of us, and it is only those people who get out the other end who say, ‘Thank God, He did not take any notice.

In the meantime, we think He is anything but kind and good and doing the right thing, but as we get on under His hand, we begin to see and to sense that He is dealing with something. Maybe He is dealing with our pride, our independence, or our irresponsibility, for example. That is the issue that comes up, and we are faced all the time with something about ourselves that is almost devastating. We would not have believed that that was so strong in us.

Oh, of course we were always ready to believe that that is in mankind and in us as a part of mankind in a general way. Yes, we would never have resented being told that there was pride or something like that about us, but we would never have believed how deeply rooted and terribly strong that thing is until it was put to a fiery test and everything was held up, and we saw that everything in our life and work for God was held up on that point....

And we know quite well that what the Lord was after was not the pulverising of us, as we thought, the winding up of us, but to bring about enlargement, to bring about release, and release always lies along the line of the Cross, the passion. Enlargement always lies in that direction.

T. Austin Sparks