For now may I just remind you of
two things: the possibility (at least the possibility) that the
Lord may be speaking in this place tonight. If our prayers are
answered, it will be so. And, if it should be so, we have
accepted a solemn responsibility in allowing ourselves to hear
the Lord speak. It may be a very blessed thing to have the Lord
speak but it is a very responsible thing, for we can never be the
same before the Lord should He speak. And we together Lord, have
said: speak. Speak Lord, in the stillness while I wait on Thee...
Give us then hearts that are wholly touched with the precious
blood of Jesus, minds that are guarded, and grace that we may
receive and obey... We ask in the name of the Lord Jesus, amen.
As there are quite a few who
have joined us since last evening, it might be helpful if I were
just to hurriedly review the course that we have been following
in these evening hours under the general title, "The Cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ". Our object has been to see how
the Cross is presented to us in the letters of the apostle Paul
and what each letter sets forth as a particular application and
meaning of the Cross.
With the letter to the Romans we
began noting how comprehensive and all-inclusive the Cross is.
And then out of the all-inclusiveness we began in the second
place the break up, so to speak, and the application to
particular and peculiar situations and needs; the first of which
was in the first letter to the Corinthians. And we noticed that
in that letter there is a great divide made: the divide between
the situation and the condition of the Corinthians as they were
when Paul wrote, and the situation and condition to which he
sought to bring them by way of the Cross - repeatedly emphasizing
that the Cross was the way of transition from the one to the
other. And we headed that consideration with the two humanities,
even where Christians are concerned, that type of Christian which
Paul describes as the natural man... which literally, in
his own language, was and is the man of soul, the soulical man,
the type living wholly upon the basis of the soul. And then on
the other side, the other kind of humanity: the spiritual man,
the man of spirit and governed by the Spirit. The letter falls
apart into those two categories, the two humanities within the
compass, mark you, of the Christian community. And we saw what a
difference there is between the two, even as Christians, and of
how the Cross cuts clean in there to make the division between
soul and spirit. I’m going to say just a few extra words in
that particular connection.
You must remember that with the
apostle Paul, being the man that he was with his very thorough
Jewish training and knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures, what we
call the Old Testament, there would always be that background to
his mentality. The Holy Spirit would be taking of that background
and although perhaps not quoting always the Old Testament or
referring to any particular book in the Old Testament, it is
there all the time. If you look beneath the surface you will find
it. And in this particular connection of which we are thinking of
now, it is so evident that there is a background of that kind to
what the apostle wrote in the first letter to the Corinthians.
Here in this letter he brings
into view that phase of Israel’s history which was in the
wilderness and its tragic issue. In chapter 10 of the first
letter he brings that forward as a warning to the
Corinthians. You remember it, he speaks about their failure
and falling in the wilderness after having come out of Egypt,
after having been redeemed with precious blood. This is not my
interpretation; this is exactly what Paul said. They fell in the
wilderness, they died in the wilderness, and they did not go
through to that for which God brought them out. And I say again,
he used it as a very solemn warning to the Corinthians and says
in effect: Be careful! You are now in exactly the same position
as Israel was in at that time and I’m warning you that your
destiny can be the same as theirs. You may fail to go through to
what God has called you unto. You may (using his own word) perish,
in the wilderness.
I know that will raise some
questions in your mind, and I expect you would want to ask me
those questions if you had the opportunity, if I gave you the
chance, about final perseverance and being once saved and lost
and all that. But don’t forget, we are not talking about
salvation. That is settled with the Corinthians. We are talking
about inheritance; the purpose of salvation. And Paul will make it
very clear that you may be on the foundations, he’s saying
it here in chapter 3, you may be on the foundation which is
Christ but when you are on the foundation you may put up a
superstructure which will be entirely lost with all your
life work going up in smoke. And that’s only another way of
interpreting Israel in the wilderness.
Now then, what was it that lay
at the root of that tragedy of Israel? And you have the
answer in the fourth chapter of the letter to the Hebrews. Now
you know, men have struggled all through the centuries to get
Paul out of the letter to the Hebrews! We’re not going to
argue about the authorship, but there’s something here that
is very similar, if not identical, in this tenth chapter of the
first letter to the Corinthians and the fourth chapter of the
letter to the Hebrews. You notice in that fourth chapter, the
writer (whoever he was) the writer is speaking about this very
same thing: "So we see that they could not enter in because
of unbelief..." and he enlarges upon the tragedy of Israel
perishing in the wilderness and not going in to possess. And then
he uses that conjunction to which I drew your attention the other
evening without enlarging upon it as I am now: For!
"For they entered not in because of unbelief... they
perished in the wilderness." "For the Word of
God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword piercing
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit." There are your
two characters again. Two humanities: the soul people perished in
the wilderness. The spiritual people which were raised up, went
over and went through. Very impressive isn’t it?
That little "for..."
That mighty little "for"... "the Word of God
divides between soul and spirit". The implication of the
actual statement is: soul... that’s the cause of all the
trouble in the wilderness. If you remember the history of those
years, those decades in the wilderness, oh how much soul! The
soul was always this: what am I getting out of it? How do I
benefit by this? "I..." In Corinth, "every one of
you says I"; what am I getting out of it? The
spiritual... and you remember the change over, the transition,
with Joshua: "If the Lord delight in us then He
will bring us in". Oh, it’s the Lord’s delight not
mine! The difference between soul and spirit... I
– Thou. And we are to come on that very definitely as we
come into the letter to the Galatians presently.
I want you to notice that that
is the big issue amongst the people of God, redeemed by precious
blood, brought out of the world and bondage to satan, and yet...
And yet failing to go right through to the purpose of that
redemption and all that God meant. And the Cross comes in to save
us from falling in the wilderness, by the way, and missing the
inheritance, by acting like a two-edged sword dividing asunder
between soul and spirit. That’s the Cross in first
Corinthians. And then we saw afterward, last night, that when
that issue is fundamentally settled (because these issues are not
settled all at once you know, they are only fundamentally
settled, there’s a lot yet to be done) we’ll find
there's a lot more in second Corinthians to be done in that
connection. But the root has been touched. The axe has been
applied to the root, something has been done.
You look at the seventh chapter
of the second letter to the Corinthians, you hear the apostle
speaking about what happened after they got his first letter. Oh,
what humiliation! Oh, what tears! Oh, what sorrow! They’re a
broken people. They were not broken before, now they’re a
broken people. They are weeping and they are sobbing over what
had happened. I say the axe is being planted at the root and
something fundamental has been done and therefore they can come
over Jordan, so to speak, come over or get through and start on
new ground altogether: the ground of the open heaven, the ground
of the unveiled face. Remember? The unveiled face... "when
he shall turn to the Lord the veil shall be taken away. Now the
Lord is a spirit and where the Spirit is Lord, there is
liberty." You’re over on the other side. There’s a
different atmosphere isn’t there in the second letter to the
Corinthians from the first? Quite a different atmosphere. And it
seems now that there are possibilities now, and so they come into
the good of the unveiled face which, in other words used by the
apostle, is "God who said: Let light shine in darkness has
shined into our hearts". It is the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. You can’t say
that in letter number one, but you can say it in number two!
"Therefore having this ministry..." the ministry of the
unveiled face.
I’m not going over all that we covered in a
full hour last night, but the point is they are now represented
in their spiritual position and you’re noticing the
spiritual sequence of these letters aren’t you? The
spiritual sequence is to move forward, with new prospect and
possibility, new potentiality, the new testament, a new
atmosphere. So when the people got over Jordan that’s how it
was, you breathe more freely.
While you’re reading the
first letter to the Corinthians, especially those early chapters,
you are not breathing freely at all, not at all. But now the
atmosphere is fuller and freer and there’s a move forward.
It is a great move forward, they are over. And as I have said,
something fundamental, although not final, has been done. It's
been done. Jericho, the inclusive thing... because you know
Jericho did represent in its seven-foldness the seven nations
that were to be conquered. Seven is the dominant number there of
Jericho and that is spiritual fullness or spiritual
inclusiveness. When you’ve got Jericho you have, in figure
and in spirit and in spiritual position, you’ve got the
land. You’ve got everything, that is, in the sovereign will
of God. So, being over into the second letter to the Corinthians
you are over and you have compassed Jericho. That is, the
foundation is dealt with.
Now what? And now what? Yes, not
now soul or soulical people, but spiritual people. You do not
need me to go back do you, to the beginning of the book of
Joshua, the man standing with the drawn sword, captain of the
host of the Lord and to which Joshua capitulated the campaign...
Well, you don’t need me to tell you that that is the
representation of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit taking
charge of the campaign; no, leave all these details.
This is where we are in the
second letter; everything looks wonderfully promising doesn’t
it? New atmosphere, new prospects, and new potentialities... what
next? What next? Ai. Galatians. A hold up.
Arrested progress. Brought to a standstill, even reverse. A
stepping back onto the old ground. The whole thing is in
jeopardy. That is Galatians isn’t it? Oh these cries of the
apostle, "Oh foolish Galatians! Who has cast the spell over
you, the witch’s spell over you? You were running well, you
had compassed Jericho, what has happened to you?" An arrest.
That’s Galatians. Ai - old ground touched. What our brother
Watchman Nee, when he was with us, used to call "the earth
touch". It’s an earth touch, going back onto the old
ground of death.
The apostle in this letter to
the Galatians puts it strangely enough into two words or a
phrase: the world. The world! And now how he finishes the letter
to Galatians, "God forbid that I should glory save in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ whereby the world is crucified
unto me and I unto the world" and he links that very phrase
or that very phrase is linked in the spiritual sequence of things
to this Ai business.
Of course we know what Achan
did at Ai, the Babylonish garment, and the wedge of gold... A
touch of the earth, a touch of the world you see; the world’s
system. You touch that and even God cannot deliver you from the
prince of this world, he’ll take full advantage of every
contact that you make with this world to arrest your spiritual
progress. He does that. Paul calls it "the world". We
shall see what that meant as we go on, for it’s a very
comprehensive and inclusive thing again. It was the arresting
hand of something. Leave the book of Joshua for the moment
and come to this letter to the Galatians. What was this arresting
hand, this spell that brought this beautiful movement to a
standstill, to cause rather a reverse than a going on? What was
it? Oh, of course you say, "You’ve told us: getting
back onto soul ground again". Yes, alright. But what is
that? What is that?
Dear friends, if you look again
at this letter to the Galatians which you know so well, you’ll
find it is in the little suffix: an "ism". An ism... in
this case: Juda-ism. Judaism. That was it. And tonight in this
connection of Galatians I am speaking about the battle for
sonship.
The Battle for
Sonship
Remember the three major words
in this letter: Liberty, Spirit (with a capital S), Son. And we
come back to that. The battle for sonship... and the battle for
sonship raged around, or on, the ground of an ism. And it was that
ism that brought the Galatian Christians to this standstill, to
this arrested progress and called out this terrible heart cry
from the apostle. Terrible heart cry: "My little
children! For whom I am again in travail till
Christ be fully formed in you..." It is a pity they
(the translators) haven’t given us the whole word, they just
put "till Christ be formed in you". No, till Christ be fully
formed in you. That’s the issue.
It was a beginning of the
formation of Christ arrested, and the full formation of Christ
to sonship has come under a change and all because of an ism. A
mighty ism, it was Judaism. I need not, I think, spend any time
in explaining and defining Judaism. You’ve read the letter.
I trust that you’ve read it before this meeting. What
Judaism is... what we’re going to say will perhaps define it
best as we enlarge this thing, but what I’m saying is it was
an ism, an ism that did it. Are you noting that? You’ve
really got a hold of that? An ism did it all! Spoilt it all. And
isms always have the same effect, they always do... isms.
Recently I came across something
written by a very well known Christian leader and teacher, a man
who over half a century ago wrote a standard on the lives of
Christ and the apostle Paul, who were the great vogue of that
time. We don’t hear so much about them today. He wrote this,
allow me to read it to you because it is so closely related to
what we are saying:
"In the craft and
subtlety of the devil and man, Christianity has ever tended
to wither away into Judaism into Rabbinism, into
scholasticism, into ecclesiasticism, into Romanism, into
sectarianism, into dead schemes of dogmatic beliefs, into
dead routines of elaborate ceremonial, into dead
exclusiveness of parties and party narrowness, into dead
formulae of church parties, into dead performances of dead
works or dead assent to dead phrases..."
That’s pretty good isn’t
it? There are all your isms... but if he lived today I
wonder how many more isms he would have had in it! I’m not
going to be so unkind as to give you the extended list but think,
think of the ism, this thing which has become defined as an ism
and that, and that, and that. Sometimes it is a distinct error.
We should mention the errors. Sometimes it is a mixture of truth and
error. Sometimes it is truth itself which is become an
ism. Yes, the truth! Quite right, the New Testament, but it has
become an ism.
And what is the effect of an
ism? What do we mean by an ism? Well, that thing has had a fence
drawn round it and has in itself become the beginning and the end
of everything. And that fence says, "Unless you tow this
line, accept this ground, come onto this ground, there’s no
fellowship with you. Fellowship is not possible. Only if you
accept this interpretation or this experience..." or
whatever it is that you can put in the place of circumcision;
"except ye be circumcised ye cannot be saved..." Remember
that? A thing! It might be right in itself but it has been
crystallized into a finality and the wall and door of
exclusivism has been set up so that unless you come onto this
ground you are excluded.
And that, as Dr Farrah of whom I’ve
just referred and given quotation, that is what he meant
by the subtlety of the devil. You’ll realize dear friends,
that God has never done a new thing in Christian history, brought
forth something that was intended to lead His people further on
to that ultimate fullness, but what? Sooner or later, and usually
sooner, men have fastened upon that and made an ‘ism’
of it, crystallized it into a teaching, a manner of practice in
Christianity, with its own laws and ways and rights, and that
thing has brought arrest to the fullness that God intended in
Jesus; almost stopped there. Ai... after Jericho.
One of the most pernicious
things that the devil has ever done in Christian history has been
to make men crystallize living truth into dead formula.
And you know, he’s clever. He’s clever, Paul took the
two-edged sword to that Goliath of Judaism and cut off its head
and robbed the devil of his most potent instrument in the days of
Paul, which was Judaism. Everywhere, everywhere that the
apostle went that was either waiting for him or on his trail; to
discredit, to bring in the arrest of spiritual life and progress.
A continuous battle. At last it headed up to this Galatian
situation and with this Galatian letter of what Paul did as here
recorded, that Goliath of Judaism was slain for the time being,
it didn’t lift its head again at that time. The devil lost a
great instrument, a very serviceable means, when he lost Judaism.
But do you think he takes that lying down? Well, I have quoted
from Farrah twelve isms and I have said we can add many
more.
The Lord Jesus said when the
unclean spirit has gone out of a man it wanders in empty places.
If something better and other does not take its place in
that man, in that house, and it comes and looks in through the
window, comes back from his wanderings and looks as a specter
through the window and sees the house is empty, he goes off
and brings seven others worse than himself. And the last state of
that man is worse than the first. When the devil lost Judaism he
looked to see what was going to take its place. And because of
this vacancy in Christianity, this not going on to sonship, he
brought back scores of others worse than himself: the isms.
The
"Isms"
Now, I’m not trying to be
either humorous or just making up something to pass on to you.
Dear friends, make no mistake about it, there are very
fascinating and attractive isms, New Testament isms, and non New
Testament isms. And, in a somewhat extended life and ministry,
again and again I have seen dear people of God who were out in
the open going on with the Lord in the liberty of the Spirit with
great promise and then they’ve been caught in some
ism. They simply are helpless to escape themselves from the tenets
of that ism. Again and again I’ve seen it! Tragedy.
British Israelism... whether it’s
right or wrong, it’s a side track! It’s something
with a fence around it and you can’t get anywhere with those
people beyond that thing. That’s the obsession. I take that
as an illustration, but I mean many others, there’s many
others.
There’s a great ism
sweeping right over America and over Europe in these last years.
I can dare to mention this one, well I’m going to at any
rate: Universalism. It’s an ism which has captured
multitudes! And you just can’t get anywhere with
these people once they’ve got it. But I have known them, oh
so promising... so promising and then this thing has
come subtly along their way, attractive and fascinating... So
appealing: everybody, ultimately, including the devil himself,
will be saved. What are you going to do with that? Willy-nilly
they’ll be saved... undercutting so many of the very vitals
of the Gospel.
I’m illustrating, I’m
not just making attack, I’m trying to show what I mean. You
may call these things gross errors, but there are things that are
not such errors. Not such errors, indeed in themselves
they’re quite true, but they have become the beginning of
all and the end of all to the people who have taken them on. You
can get no further, no further. They have lost the great ground,
the vast ground of God’s full purpose for this
dispensation and become stuck on some thing that is only partial
at best. Arrested... like Judaism; come to a standstill, or going
round and round in a circle, the circle of this particular thing.
It should be a warning to us
because, you see, this is the thing that has been the
enemy of the fullness of Christ all through the centuries - this
sort of thing. The Lord does something; it’s right, the Lord
does it. Then before long it is crystallized into a system
governed by men and unless you come that way, you’re
out, you’re not accepted, no fellowship. You must stand on this
ground, this ground, or you’re not included at all
in the whole compass of things. You understand what I mean? Isn’t
this true?
Oh, how subtle this is... but we
come now to this letter again. You notice that there is a
transition in this letter, a transition which is gathered under
several words or names. They all mean the same thing, whether it
is bondage on the one side and liberty on the other, servant and
son, the law and the Spirit. This is the issue, the issue in this
letter. What does it amount to? What I have been saying, on the
one side the servant, speaking of bondage, limitation. And what
word really explains the servant? In the Greek it’s the
bondslave. What is it? "You must". The servant,
you see, has no rights of his own; no liberty. He has to do what
he’s told: "You must and you must not..." You
cannot follow your own judgment. You’ve got to obey this,
whatever it is. We call it legalism, but it has so many forms. It
is the "must" life, the "must" life of the
slave, the bondservant. That’s the word.
On the other side, over against
the slave is the son. And you know as well as I do what a
difference there is between those two. I don’t know how it
is here in America, but I know how it is over our way! The
servant goes out in the morning (be he the builder or the
roadworker or whatever he is, the employee) and he doesn’t
hurry to work at all. He goes as slowly as he possibly can
without actually making a breach of the law and when he gets
there he takes so long to get his coat off... and then so long to
get his tools out... and then he looks round, “A nice time
to have a cup of coffee!” And you can go along almost any
hour of the day and find him having his cup of tea... And so they
go through the day; they’re the servants, the “must”
people and as little of that as possible!
But when you get the son, the
son of the owner of the property, the son of the master builder,
there’s none of that. No, this thing is a matter of both
interest and responsibility and more: of love for the father. And
he’ll work beyond the appointed hours and he’ll work!
He’ll work all the hours; no “must” with him,
nothing like that. What is it? It’s his spirit. It’s
the spirit carried on by another spirit than the spirit of the
servant. That’s the letter to the Galatians, you see,
sonship. Liberty from all this demand, essentials, obligations,
the “must”... it never comes in; never comes in at all.
The liberty of sonship goes on
without considering personal interests, without asking any
questions as to how much must I, and how much can I not.
You see the difference? And we are all in peril of some kind of
must, and drive, even in the things that the Lord has done with
us. The blessed things that the Lord has done, if we’re not
very careful, we will bring them into a systematized form and
they will become our prison and it’ll be the bondslave.
Sonship is God’s goal for the Christian.
God’s
Goal
You know, the word is “the
manifestation of the sons of God”. That’s the
consummation of everything; bringing many sons to glory.
God deals with us as with sons. Sonship... there’s no higher
thought in all of revelation than the thought of sonship. “Beloved,
now are we the sons of God, it is not yet revealed what we shall
be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him,
we shall see Him as He is” that’s sonship finally
consummated and we are being dealt with on that principle of
sonship. Wonderful conception!
The apostle John, you see the
old man John in his Patmos exile contemplating his long life.
Yes, suffering and plenty of it in his long life in union with
his Master, he just does write: “There’s nothing to
compare with this,” says he, “sonship”.
Sonship, the highest thing ever thought of by God for us, for
redemption. And we’re in progress of this and if that is
true, will the devil stop at anything to prevent us getting to
that? Why? You see it’s going to be this corporate sonship -
glorified in union with the Son Who is going to dispose the whole
kingdom of satan and displace it and take its place for the
government in the ages to come. And the prince of this world is
not taking that easily. And so not only will he bring
these persecutions and sufferings from the outside but he’ll
bring these subtle snares of an ism; arrest our spiritual
progress and shut us up to something smaller than God intended.
And he’s frustrated the end when he’s done that.
Oh, the point is, keep out
in the open with the Lord! Keep out in the light of the
Spirit, the Spirit will not let you go wrong. The Spirit will
make known to you all that is intended for you, but don’t
begin to say to other people when you’ve got that experience
or that light, “Now unless you accept this and take this
ground... you see, you’re outside the pale, we are the
people! We are the people, the truth begins and ends with
us.” Oh, God save us from the spirit of it... the spirit of
it. For you to go and think about the isms, whether denominations
are right or wrong, I’m not going to argue. But I will say
emphatically denominationalism is wrong. When it becomes
an ism, something that binds you, controls you, sets the
boundaries for you, then it's wrong. And whatever other things it
may be, whether it is right or wrong, as soon as the enemy
succeeds in making that the limit, however good, he’s
defeated the end. There will be an arrest and a reverse.
And I can only take you back to
close by reminding you of how Joshua handled the situation. Yes
he sifted this thing down at Ai, sifted it down, down, down... to
a tribe, a family, a unit in the family: Achan. “Achan come
out, stand here”. One man... an ism, brought in arrest
not only to himself, but to the Lord’s people. “Achan,
you must go”. And they stoned Achan. And it was a very
drastic thing that was done, because of the principle involved
you see, the principle involved.
But whatever Joshua did with
Achan, I don’t think it compares to what Paul did with
Judaism in Galatians. Listen: “If anyone, be he an angel
from the heavens, preaches any other gospel than that which we
preach, let him be accursed”. The curse was pronounced upon
Achan and he died under the curse. Let him be accursed! And I say
again, I repeat it with Paul: “Let him be anathema, let him
be accursed”. It was the curse upon “excepted”...
of any kind of loose legalism, “Except you be
circumcised you cannot be saved...” Except! Except... oh, be
careful of these “excepts”. There are other kinds of
excepts which are quite alright, “Except a man be born from
above he cannot see the kingdom of God” that’s alright;
but not a Judaistic one.
You see how strong the Holy
Spirit, the Word of God is upon this matter of keeping
out in the open with the Lord as your Government, the Holy Spirit
as your Control, your Teacher. And it is safe when the Holy
Spirit really is Lord. There’s liberty, but it’s safe,
it’s safe.
Remember again what John said
about this, “Ye have an anointing and the anointing which
you have received abideth in you and you need not that anyone
teach you anything, the anointing teacheth you all things...”
Oh be careful! Be careful... “I’m quite independent! I
don’t need anybody to tell me anything!” that is not
what John is saying at all; at all. What is John saying? There
are many antichrists in the world and an antichrist is not a
spurious, fearful creature, you know, with a tail and a
pitchfork. No, an antichrist is something that assumes the
place of Christ. The devil himself is transformed into an
angel of light, there are many. And with the natural judgment,
natural powers, you are not able to distinguish between the true
and the false. The Christ and the antichrist seem to be so much
alike. You can’t discern the difference but the Anointing
will tell you! The Anointing which you have received, when you
come into touch with something false, will tell you if the
Anointing is really governing, saying “be careful”, not
in words but inside. You have a feeling there’s something
not quite clear here, not transparent here, not safe here...
“I don’t feel happy about this, I can’t tell you
why but I just don’t feel quite happy about this... there’s
something in me that says: beware”.
The Anointing will teach you, it’s
perfectly safe when the Anointing is in charge you see, and here
you are: there’s your other humanity isn’t it? The spiritual
man, says Paul, discerneth all things. And I would
close with just saying this, dear friends, that in my judgment
the greatest need in Christianity among Christians today is
spiritual discernment. I could not say anything beyond that. I
am convinced that in a day like this of deceptions and
misleadings and all that, the great need is our
spiritual discernment; of knowing the Holy Spirit in this way,
that He’s able to warn you, just to warn you! Not in words,
it might be by words of Scripture, but in your own spirit where
He dwells He says, “That’s alright, go on”.
The arbitrator is Life and
Peace, but people say, "No, be careful there’s danger
there". Then it is for us in our spiritual sensitiveness to
take note of that and let me tell you that it’s not my
experience that the Holy Spirit speaks with a shout. I’ve
very rarely known the Holy Spirit to speak out in a way that
there’s no mistaking it. It’s been such a gentle
thing... Such a gentle thing, it’s just something that I could
miss if I didn’t pause and learn. That’s the voice of
gentle stillness that is so often the voice of the Spirit. That
is sonship you see, growing to discern, to sense, to understand;
the spirit of sonship.
Well, I’ve said enough, may
the Lord help us to understand. And if you’re praying, in
all your praying for whatever you’re praying, ask the Lord
that by the Holy Spirit He will develop in you a spirit of
discernment, give you spiritual discernment so that you, as Paul
put it in another place, can discriminate the things which
are excellent. Remember that? The difference in things -
good, bad, indifferent, best, excellent - that you may be able to
discern the things that stick out. The original is, "the
things that are excellent". The Lord make us people like
that.
Now Lord, there may not have
been very much entertainment or fascination or attractiveness
about all this, but we know that Thou wouldst be very faithful
with us, and we want Thee to do it. And if warning and
enlightenment as to peril is Thy mercy and Thy grace and Thy
goodness, then we’ll be very grateful if such a light, a
warning light has been shown; something to save us. Oh Lord, how
we want to go on and go through and come out into the ultimate
consummation, sons in glory, never arrested, never having our
path shortened, never brought short... Oh Lord, we want to go on
to full growth, to all that Thou hast called us unto. Now give us
understanding, interpret to us Thy meaning in what we trust has
been Thy word. Guard our hearts and our minds through Christ
Jesus and may grace and mercy and peace from Father, Son and Holy
Spirit be with us evermore, amen.