"But the eleven
disciples went into Galilee, unto the mountain where
Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they
worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came to them
and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been
given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore,
and make disciples of all the nations" (Matt. 28:16-19).
A
Spiritual Challenge to be Answered
There is a challenge in
this present time which is, perhaps, more acute and
serious than at any other time in the history of this
world. No doubt in the early days of the Church the
challenge was very strong, but then the surface of the
earth invaded by the Gospel was very small compared with
the range in our time, and in many other ways things were
far less developed then than they are now. The
development of the centuries has provided so very much
more of ground and means for the operation of the kingdom
of darkness in relation to this world, and that challenge
of the kingdom of evil is very, very serious and intense
in our time. In many ways the Church of God is aware of
it - perhaps not completely conscious of the cause or the
reason, but aware of the fact that she is being stifled,
resisted, in a very large degree nullified; made aware of
a certain impotence and ineffectiveness and of the
absence of authority and power to meet a spiritual
situation which is becoming so intense. I say that is a
challenge of this present time which does threaten to
make the Church a thing which, speaking comparatively, is
not to be taken very seriously. The world can pass on and
ignore her, and situations can arise here and there with
which she cannot cope, before which she is impotent and
helpless - and knows it.
That challenge
represents a need, and, while we have not the conceit to
imagine that that need can be met by us, yet it behooves
us to face the challenge and consider the need, and if
God will take up the weak and the small and make them to
count for something far, far beyond what they would do
naturally, then there may be possibilities where we are
concerned, if we really seriously face this matter before
God.
We have spoken of a
spiritual situation, and it is not necessary, I think, to
say to you that, while we are very conscious that the
temporal situation is increasingly difficult for the work
of God, behind all the external difficulties is a
spiritual rulership. The things seen are, after all, only
the foreground, the stage, of something far greater
behind. "World rulers of this darkness" is no
meaningless phrase. It is there that the trouble lies,
and, until there is in existence that which can touch
things there with the authority of Christ, the situation
for the Church is hopeless. We can recite so glibly - it
is the slogan of all missionary enterprise - "All
authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth.
Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the
nations." I think the emphasis, at any rate the
deduction in practice, is mainly on "Go ye into all
the world and preach the gospel," and not upon
"All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and
on earth." "Go ye therefore..."; the
word "therefore" has not been given and is not
given its real and sufficient place. It is the link
between the undertaking and the "all authority"
vested in the Lord Jesus. And as for the Church standing
in the good and value of that "all authority"
well, it does not say much for the authority if the
present impact of the Church is the standard of judging
it. It is that that constitutes the urgency of this
present time.
The
Challenge Answered in a Spiritual People
Now, having indicated
again that this whole thing is a spiritual matter to be
fought out in the spiritual realm, the work of God must
in consequence be seen in the spiritual realm before
there can be any meeting of the temporal situation and
overcoming it. We are brought right here to the heart of
things. We have spoken in our previous meditation of a
body of Christians, of a certain kind, in a certain
position, doing a certain work. What do we mean by that?
Well, to use mere words is not necessarily helpful. We
must explain our words. If we say a spiritual people, in
spiritual relatedness, occupying a spiritual position,
pre-eminently meeting spiritual forces to their
overthrow, that word 'spiritual' eludes us at once. What
does it amount to in practical outworking?
The
Marks of a Spiritual People
(a)
Living by Divine, Not Natural, Life
Well, firstly, it means
that the life of such people must be spiritual life. In
the work of God there can be, and often is, the
projecting of a great deal of natural life-force. You may
call it by different terms - zeal, enthusiasm, drive,
energy, any such word to describe putting yourself into
the thing with all your might to make it go. So, by this
zest, by this intensity, by this strength, you get the
work of God done. Now, it is not that that I am talking
about. If this thing is going to be done in the spiritual
realm, it is only going to be done by spiritual life, and
spiritual life is something altogether different from
natural life. As we are basing everything upon the Cross,
allowing the Cross to be our basis and our
interpretation, it is just here that the great cleavage
is made, the great difference is recognised, the great
turnover takes place. At the Cross, so far as spiritual
things are concerned, all natural life ends; there, all
natural energy, as capable of producing any spiritual
effect, is brought to an end, is at a discount. Even
natural physical life, energy, strength, as producing
anything spiritual in effect, counts for nothing. When
you are coming into touch with spiritual forces, what is
the good of muscular or constitutional strength in the
physical, natural realm? Those forces have only to touch
the strongest body and it will be broken. So you find in
the New Testament that all counting upon the energy, the
capability, the strength of the natural life, is set
aside, and the men concerned are brought to an end of
that and made to know that their spiritual work, their
spiritual accountability, takes its rise from Divine life
even for the body, so that, under the hand of God, they
come to the place where, unless Divine life is
administered even to their physical bodies - strong as
they have been physically and constitutionally before -
they cannot go on, they are at an end.
Paul is a
great outstanding example of that. The others were there
too. Peter came to his crisis on that. He was very sure
of himself and what he could do, how far he could go,
what he could go through and endure; but he had to come,
by means of the Cross, in the very presence of the Cross,
to the place where he recognised that he could never get
through on that. The words of the Lord to him had an
immediate meaning - "Thou canst not follow
me now; but thou shalt follow afterwards" (John
13:36); not 'hereafter,' that is, in the distant
Hereafter, in the next life, but "afterwards."
After what? - after you have learned this lesson of the
utter impotence of human life, and the absolute necessity
and potency of Divine life, even in the physical realm.
So that one of the
great lessons that this people must learn experimentally
is to know how to live by Divine life; and when we get on
to that basis all issues are taken out of the hands of
natural eventualities. Here is Saul of Tarsus, a man with
tremendous force and seemingly great powers of endurance
physically, a man of very great natural life - what we
should call soul-force. What did the Lord do with him? He
brought him to the place where he despaired of life in
order that he might not trust in himself, but in God Who
raiseth the dead (2 Cor. 1:9). In so describing his
experience he simply intimates - 'Well, naturally I am a
dead man, the sentence of death is passed upon me.' But
here is this man going on - a dead man going on. And we
do not find him at the last saying, 'I am now going to be
executed, they are now going to finish me, I have got to
give in this time.' No! The issue is not with emperors or
governments or persecutors. He is going to finish his
course - not to have it cut short; no 'broken column'
here; he is going to finish his course, keeping the faith
to the last moment (2 Tim. 4:7); not having to give up
because of circumstances, but, as he puts it in another
place, he will offer himself up as a libation (Phil.
2:17). Is he not in exactly the same position as his
Lord, Who said of His own life, "No one taketh it
away from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power
to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This
commandment received I from my Father" (John 10:18).
It is not with the High Priest, it is not with the Jewish
nation, it is not with anybody else - it is with Him to
say when He will die. They said, "Not during the
feast." He said, in effect, 'Yes, during the feast;
it shall be on the day of the Passover'; and it was.
Authority
in Christ, then, is first of all in terms of life. If
there is going to be this impact of the Divine authority
upon the spiritual kingdom of evil and death, the people
through whom the impact is going to be registered will
have to come on to this basis where, even for their very
physical life, they have to know the life of God, to know
how to draw life from God and how to minister spiritual,
Divine life to one another. Divine life is a tremendous
thing, and if we are living by it we are not going to die
because we are old. We are not going to die because
nature says so, or the doctor says so! We are going to
die when the Lord says so! And when the Lord has decided
that Divine life is no longer required for the carrying
on of His work through us, then we shall enter into life
still more abundant, and it will not be death. That is
the authority of Christ in the universe where death is
the master opposing power. Such a people must know this.
To be
brought there is not just teaching; this is grim,
desperate business. It meets with a challenge, and a
challenge from no less a realm than the whole hierarchy
of Satan. The answer to that challenge has to come along
the line of Divine life known by us for spirit and soul
and body.
The
Challenge to Life Must be Met Corporately
And how
corporate a matter that is! I am talking about a people.
Yes, it becomes individual; there has to be an
individual exercise and experience; an individual
knowledge and application and appropriation; but it is
something more than individual. In that battle, every
individual needs the cooperation and the encompassing of
the Church. Woe betide the poor individual, whoever he or
she may be, who gets out into that realm of spiritual
conflict without the encompassing of the saints!
So this
matter of triumph in the spiritual realm is a Church
matter, and when I say 'a Church matter,' I mean it is a
corporate matter. The Church may be indicated and implied
by two or three in the Name of the Lord, but it must be
that at least to minister to one another. Oh, if the
Church more largely knew about that and stood right into
it, what a lot of tragedies would never take place that
are taking place! What a lot of people would be spared to
the work of God who are being put out! What a lot of
retirements from the work would never take place! Do they
represent the triumph of the enemy? Everyone who has to
give up for want of Divine life - is that the triumph of
the enemy? That is what I mean by spiritual people in a
spiritual position meeting spiritual forces - firstly,
knowing spiritual life (that is, Divine life) for spirit,
the inner man: for soul, for mind: yes, and for body.
Natural
Weakness Essential to Spiritual Power
Here is
the great paradox of Christianity - "when I am weak,
then am I strong" (2 Cor. 12:10). "My power is
made perfect in weakness" (v. 9). Divine life does
not make of us Samsons in a literal, physical sense, so
that our muscles develop, our biceps become abnormal, and
all that sort of thing. Rather, in weakness there is
something the withdrawal of which would mean that the
frail vessel would crumple up and fade out very soon.
There is something there which is not natural; it is the
very life of God. Everything has to be accounted for on
that basis.
Let me add
a word in order to guard against misunderstanding or
misapprehension. I am not saying that you are wrong to be
healthy, or even to be physically strong. I am not
suggesting that you go to the Lord and ask Him to take
your health and strength away. But I have said that if
that is the basis on which you are working, if it is upon
that that you are counting for spiritual effectiveness,
you are wrong; it does not count at all. You may be
healthy and strong, but you need to recognise that it is
not that that will see this work done, but your necessity
is as great in the matter of spiritual Divine life as
that of the weakest, the most helpless. There may be a
place for your health and strength, but something more
than that is needed to do the work in the spiritual
realm.
(b)
Spiritual Knowledge of the Lord by Revelation,
Not Intellectual
The same
thing holds good in the matter of spiritual knowledge. No
amount of natural, accumulated, studied knowledge can
touch spiritual things. There is a value in Bible study,
there is a value in accumulating knowledge of things in
relation to God's Word and God's work. Oh, do not despise
that and do not let anything I say turn you aside from
diligence in that; but, after all, though you have a vast
amount of such knowledge: though you know your Bible
throughout: though you be what is called a Bible scholar:
all that, at its fullest, stops short of spiritual
effectiveness. It does not matter how much of that you
have: when it comes to the question of registering upon
those spiritual intelligences, there is no natural
knowledge that can touch them. You will never overpower
the forces of darkness with natural intelligence and
accumulated information, however great it is. Spiritual
knowledge is of another kind. You may have the
intellectual - I say, do not despise it - but you must
recognise the need of something extra. Yes, I know the
Bible in a way: that is, I know what is here in actual
words and sentences and paragraphs; but that will get me
nowhere when I come to deal with spiritual things. I have
got to have something extra to that - a spiritual
understanding, spiritual knowledge. Something
has got to come from God by way of illumination and
revelation into my own heart concerning God's thoughts in
this Book. How can we explain that? It is so difficult,
but there it is - perhaps you understand what I mean.
Spiritual knowledge is of another order. It is only God
Who knows in the way that can meet the spiritual
intelligences.
So this
people who count for something in that ultimate realm -
that realm where there is the only true accountability -
this people will have to be a people of spiritual
knowledge and of spiritual understanding. Paul prayed
that "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ may give unto
you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of
him; having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye
may know..." (Eph. 1:17-18); and it is not without
significance that that prayer for spiritual revelation
and knowledge precedes what he writes concerning the
wiles of the devil and "Our wrestling is not against
flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against
the powers of this darkness" (Eph. 6:11,12). There
is no training in any seminary or institution which can
of itself equip you against the wiles of the devil. This
requires spiritual training.
Spiritual
Training Practical, Not Academic
Let me put
here this parenthesis. Some of you who read this may be
concerned about your life, your future, and you are
wondering whether the Lord would lead you into His
service. Some of you are definitely feeling that He will.
The question in your mind is, how will you get your
training, what about your preparation? Let me say this,
that, while sound instruction in the Word of God will be
a necessary foundation, do not think that that alone is
your training for the work of God. That is not an
adequate training, or qualification. The work of God lies
in a realm where, though you may have all that, you may
be at a discount altogether; you may be frustrated,
broken, defeated, as many servants of God are today
because they have not got the spiritual goods to meet the
situation. Your really vital training will be practical,
in the spiritual realm. That is, the Lord will deal with
you in such a way as to develop you as spiritual men and
women who know spiritual life and have spiritual
knowledge, and that will only come by a very practical
handling of your life on the basis of the Cross. There
are many who are not willing to go through that kind of
training. They will go to Bible studies, theological
lectures, and all that kind of thing; they are ready for
that, but they are not so ready to be put into situations
where it is extremely difficult to live, to get on with
other people, where you find you are rubbed up the wrong
way all the time, and everything goes against the grain.
In such circumstances the one drive upon you and the one
longing of your soul is to get out of it, to run away and
find some other place, some other circumstances; and yet
to do so would be to take yourself right out of the hands
of God. To remain in His hands means to stay in that
situation until the Cross has done its work and you are
glad to be there, you are triumphant there, you have
gained the ascendancy spiritually there, and the power of
the enemy over you there has been broken. That is your
training for the work of God. God can put you anywhere if
He has you like that, and you will count; but all the
rest may be nothing without it.
(c)
Spiritual Influence - the Impact of Christ, Not of People
Then this
people must be characterised by spiritual influence. What
do we mean by that? Well, we know what we mean when we
speak of influential persons. For some reason or other,
they are people who count. It may be their strong
personality, their personal aggressiveness, their
initiative, their conspicuous ability, either inbred or
acquired. They are not nonentities; they are positives,
not negatives. A lot of that kind of influence has been
brought into the work of God, and people have been
adjudged influential in the things of the kingdom of God
very largely because of this or that natural
characteristic, natural acquirement or natural inborn
qualities.
Now you
may be a giant in natural influence, and yet in the
spiritual realm the powers of darkness may laugh at you.
Your stature is nothing there, your natural measurement
means nothing to them. Your accountability in that realm
will be just the measure of your spiritual life; your
influence in the spiritual realm, with God, with men, and
over the powers of evil, will be spiritual or it will not
be at all. So it comes to pass very often that the weak
things, and the things which are not, are the very things
with which the powers of darkness and men have to reckon,
of which account has to be taken. It often happens that
if you take stock of some believers you do not think very
much of them; you would not give them a second thought;
you would put them in the category of people who do not
count. But somehow you cannot dismiss them like that.
There is something there you cannot explain by their
personality or lack of it, by their physical presence, by
their training. There is no ground on which you can
explain this, and yet you have to acknowledge that they
count for something; it is spiritual influence. A people
constituted like that are the only people to meet the
emergency of this time. Such a people will be the
instrument by which God will vindicate the Cross of
Christ.
But what
does it amount to? To this - everything with such a
people has to be attributed to the Lord. That is it. What
did we say that God has revealed to be the consummate
issue from the Cross? It is this - Christ absolutely
transcendent over all other powers, and that expressed in
a people. Then so far as that people are concerned the
way to this will be by emptying, emptying, emptying -
that in all things He may have the pre-eminence. It is
the Lord Jesus and not the people that must be in
evidence. The evil powers may say, 'Jesus I know, and His
servant Paul I know, and that spiritual people I know;
but as for you people of pomp and ceremony and natural
development, who are you, what are you?
I hope you
are really seeing what the Lord is after. The Lord must
be manifested in His universe by means of a people of
this kind. The challenge comes to us - will we accept all
that it means to be of such a kind?
Spirituality
Inwrought by Discipline of Circumstances
Now I must
add this before I close. What I have been saying may call
for an adjustment or a re-adjustment to your
circumstances on the part of many of you. You see, my
dear friends, young, middle-aged or old - and let us rule
out that 'old' in the light of what we have been saying -
it may be that you are as much in 'a training college'
now as ever you could be. Going to a seminary or
institution would not of necessity add anything to your
opportunities of being prepared for the work of the Lord.
That comforts some of you, but it calls for adjustment.
If you are in the hands of God, you are in the school of
God. What are you being taught, what are you learning,
what is the meaning of it? Well, is it to know the Bible
better as a book, and all kindred and associated
subjects, or is it to know the Lord? Give me the man or
woman who knows the Lord before you give me the one who
knows all other things without that. Bible knowledge and
all that kind of thing is a valuable, important, yes, in
a sense, indispensable foundation and addition, but the
thing is to know the Lord. And how will you know the
Lord? - in the way in which I have been indicating:
knowing Him as your life, knowing Him as your wisdom,
knowing Him as your influence. Adjust to your
circumstances, to your situation. If I were to appeal for
young men and women to come to a course of training, and
were to say, 'Now, we are starting a Bible Institute;
will you give your lives to the Lord and come and be
trained for His work?' I think there would be some who
would respond and say, 'Yes, I am going into training for
the work of God.' If you are not already in training, you
will never become so merely by going to any such
Institute. Adjust to your present situation while it is
the Lord's will for you to be in it. Adjust to it as you
would to a training centre. Enter upon it with a new
adjustment as seriously as you would if you were giving
notice at business and packing your bag and going into a
Bible Institute. Take that attitude toward your present
situation and know that, while you are there in His
will, God will teach you Himself; and that is the thing
that matters. He will teach you how to live by His life,
how to know Him with spiritual understanding and
knowledge, how to exercise and exert a spiritual
influence. I am not saying, 'Do not raise the question as
to whether the Lord, after a probation and a testing of
that kind, is wanting you to move out more fully into His
work.' It may be; but I think you see the point of this
word. We have got to adjust ourselves to our whole life
situation. Many of you could never depart from where you
are; but that is your college, that is where you ought to
be learning. But are you? Or are you all the time wanting
to get out, merely enduring it, putting up with it,
saying, 'Here I am; I suppose I must stay till something
else opens up.' What is your attitude? Look at those
fellows who row in the boat-race. The time comes when
they go into training and they do it with a mind, they do
it thoroughly, they set themselves to it. They have one
thing in view, and everything has to come into line with
that - fitness to fulfil the task before them. We have to
take that attitude toward life where we are in the will
of God - 'This is a setting in which I am in training,
and I set myself to secure all the values possible in
this situation of knowing the Lord, proving the Lord,
living on the Lord, that I may be qualified to meet the
need of the hour' - and it is a great need, a very great
emergency, which is confronting the people of God today.